The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) market is a wide and increasingly prevalent industry in today’s technologically advanced world. There are over 400 UAV manufacturers worldwide, ranging from low-end consumer products (think Amazon drones) to high-end commercial and military applications. Indeed, UAVs are progressively replacing the use of manned aircrafts and satellites for reasons such as safety, performance, and cost.
UAVs can be used for a variety of applications, such as precision agriculture (observing and measuring variability in crops, i.e. plant nitrogen, evaporation and soil moisture, illicit drug growth, etc.), pipeline and river inspection, 3D terrain generation, mapping services, forestry, mining… just to name a few. Consequently, UAVs require ruggedized products that can withstand a harsh environment.
One of the most important components on an unmanned aerial vehicle is the camera. UAV cameras collect the data required for the application and therefore must be extremely reliable, intuitive, robust, sturdy and of high quality. An everyday, consumer-based camera will not work for these purposes. The camera must have high resolution and incorporate integral specialized requirements, such as speed, wavelength, easy integration into a system, shock/vibration specs, flexible filters, deterministic triggering, etc.
Lumenera understands the important imaging needs of the UAV industry. Our industrial-grade high-performance cameras are a perfect fit for UAV applications as they are highly customizable in order to meet even the most demanding requirements for UAV systems. Many of our industrial cameras are built for rugged 24/7 use with a robust enclosure that is designed to effectively dissipate heat and withstand the harshest environments. As well, they are extremely reliable so that the data captured can be trusted for precise inspection and measurement.
