Equipment used
We used three uncooled microbolometer arrays (Table 1) of varying sensor size and cost. The Jenoptik VarioCAMⓇ HD (hereafter referred to as the “Jenoptik”) professional thermal imager was used to evaluate part 1, with the FLIR Zenmuse XT640 and Sierra-Olympic VayuHD used in part 2 (hereafter referred to as the “Zenmuse” and “Vayu” respectively). The Zenmuse came as an integrated system with the DJI Inspire 1 drone, however, both the Jenoptik and the Vayu were heavier non-integrated imagers. Both imagers required mounting to a Ronin MX gimbal (https://www.dji.com/au/ronin-mx) for image stabilisation. The Jenoptik was mounted to a DJI S1000+ drone (https://www.dji.com/au/spreading-wings-s1000/spec )and the Vayu mounted to a DJI Matrice 600 drone (https://www.dji.com/au/matrice600/info#specs). All video was collected and processed as “white-hot” grayscale imagery.
Table 1: The three thermal imagers (uncooled microbolometer arrays) used during the study. The Jenoptik VarioCAMⓇ HD was used to evaluate whether rabbit warrens could be detected by a thermal imager. The FLIR Zenmuse XT640 and Sierra-Olympic VayuHD were used to compare consumer products with high-end professional products. The FLIR Zenmuse XT640 came as an integrated system with the DJI Inspire I drone. (Hz = frame rate).