How to Take Temperature Measurements from Drone Data

Updated: Jul 30

Overview

Thermal drone inspections are becoming the go-to method for identifying moisture and heat-related issues in various structures and environments. By measuring the relative difference in emissivity levels of different materials, these inspections can provide precise data on temperature variations, enabling the detection of issues such as water ingress, insulation defects, and overheating components. This kind of drone data helps in proactive maintenance, preventing potential damage, enhancing safety, and optimizing energy efficiency.

The advanced imaging capabilities of thermal drones offer a comprehensive, non-invasive solution for assessing and managing critical thermal and moisture conditions in buildings so let’s look at how you can take temperature measurements from your next drone building inspection.

Step 1. Capture High-Quality Data Using a Thermal Drone Camera

First you'll need a drone with a thermal camera. Thermal imaging was originally associated with surveillance missions but thermal drone cameras are a great tool for anyone carrying out regular building inspections. One of the things which has helped increase the popularity of thermal drone inspections is the drop in the cost of the equipment, particularly radiometric cameras. Radiometric thermal cameras detect and measure infrared radiation emitted from objects and convert it into a thermal image that displays temperature variations, so rather than just being presented with a heat map, you can get specific temperature measurements from your building's surface. We've put together this quick guide to help you choose the right kit.

Processing thermal data can be slightly more challenging than regular drone data so you'll want to make sure you have have a high level of overlap in your images. You can read more about the process for capturing high-quality drone data for building inspections here.

Your colour palette is also important. These are usually user-controlled and assign the colours you see which determine how hot or cold an area is.

We'd recommend using Iron-bow for building and facade inspections.

Since thermal cameras have lower resolution than visual cameras, we highly recommend capturing your data using an automated flight plan. That way, you can be certain that you are getting the correct overlap in your images, crucial for the data to process correctly when the resolution of images is low.

Step 2. Upload the data to Hammer Missions

Once you've captured your data, you'll need to use a drone software platform to inspect it. Processing drone data used to take hours but Hammer Missions streamlines the process.

This guide shows you how: How to Process Thermal Data

Step 3. Turn Your Thermal Drone Data into 2D Maps or 3D models

Once you've uploaded your drone data into Hammer Missions it's easy to create 2D maps and 3D models of your target. It's as simple as clicking a button.

The image below shows a 3D model on the left with the yellow dots representing each photograph taken.

Step 4. Take Temperature Measurements (Drone Images)

live thermal measurements in Hammer Missions

Taking temperature measurements in Hammer Missions is easy. Once you've processed your images, the temperature data is all transferred as well. Just click on the thermometer and hover or click on your image.

Step 5. Annotate & Share

Once you've uploaded, processed and analysed your data you can also annotate the images to share your findings with others. Moreover, if you have a visual dataset, you can compare your thermal and visual datasets to build a better picture of your findings.

You can then either share the full project with an existing Hammer Missions user or download the annotated images in various file types to share with other stakeholders.

This handy guide gives you more information about sharing your projects in Hammer Missions.

Conclusion

Thermal drone cameras are the latest weapon in the building inspector's arsenal. Thermal inspections give the ability to see beyond the brick facade or roof material to potential issues below. Thermal inspections can detect what the naked eye can't, even when you have detailed drone imagery to study.