What UAVs Can See: New Thermal Imaging for DJI Drones

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Chinese unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) startup DJI is incredibly popular with hobbyists and cinematographers. Its drone are powerful, agile, and simple to operate, making them ideal for inexperienced and beginner buyers. Due to this, DJI is becoming the favoured brand of drones for commercial operator applying for Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) exemptions to fly in the United States. It seems that DJI is aiming to become the dominant player in the market for specialised UAVs that can perform mission-critical operations.

DJI has recently announced plans to bring thermal imaging capabilities to its Inspire One and Matrice drones. For this purpose they are working on a new camera, the Zenmuse XT, in cooperation with FLIR Systems.

The Zenmuse XT will use the same gimbal mount already present in the Matrice and Inspire One, and can therefore easily replace an already present camera. The Zenmuse XT is expected to come to market early in 2016, but it so far hasn’t been revealed how much the unit will cost.

“Almost every week we see new applications of our aerial technology,” said DJI Founder and CEO Frank Wang. “Adding thermal imaging as an additional sensor options for aerial platforms will open up new AND innovative uses for our users, whether it’s gaining strategic insight into how their crops are growing or more efficiently understanding the spread of fires.”

The commercial UAV market is expected to grow to a multi-billion dollar industry in the next few years, and DJI hopes to carve out as big a slice of that market as it can. To that end, DJI will leverage its established lead in consumer-grade UAVs with the added value of specialised technology.