Safe and efficient aerial inspections
If health and safety is the focus of your operation, eliminate risk by employing an aerial solution. Keep your team's feet on the ground by deploying our range of Commercial craft, equipped with sensors specific to the task at hand. Improve efficiencies by operating multiple sensors to obtain more information in a shorter time — all while remaining at the peak of safety in the workplace. Stop climbing and start flying!
For more information on how we can help with your project, contact our Commercial Solutions team on
09 399 2084 or via the form below.
How are New Zealanders using drones for asset inspection?
Powerline Inspection
Drone technology is rapidly becoming a vital solution for energy organisations looking to efficiently collect crucial data for their operations. UAVs can provide access to property in difficult and hard-to-reach locations and allows a closer view for inspecting damage. Utilising a drone as part of the inspection team is a safe and efficient alternative assessment method that is becoming the norm for all energy inspections.
Reducing the risk of injury is integral to assessment operations, inspecting power lines and transmission towers. Drones make the work safer, more efficient and more cost-effective. With the ability to capture accurate data over large distances, there is less need for manual inspections, which are often dangerous and timely.
Product recommendation: DJI Matrice 350 RTK, DJI Zenmuse P1, DJI Zenmuse H20T
COUNCIL ASSISTANCE
Local councils are increasingly investing in drone technology for a range of tasks across their region. The workload of a council-owned UAV typically includes 3D modelling, flood plain modelling, engineering designs and surveying. Councils can also employ drones for volumetric analysis, site planning, asset inspections, monitoring coastal erosion, search and rescue work, civil defence and emergency management. Other uses span regulatory inspections (building), spatial planning, and land use and ecological condition analysis, while also creating material for marketing and promotion.
In use across multiple platforms, UAVs are a functional tool, and only continues to prove its role in efficiency and time saving; planning and decision-making; health and safety; and high-quality data analysis. Drones are quickly becoming part of local councils’ day-to-day service to the public.
Product recommendation: The DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise
Roof and Solar Panel Inspection
Although drones are already actively being used for roof inspections around the country, addition of thermal imaging technology has opened up further possibilities for roof and solar panel inspections.
Equipped with high-quality cameras, drones can efficiently survey every inch of a building from base to roof, scanning for energy loss and moisture damage. Infrared drone inspections can inspect the structural integrity of the building, revealing air infiltration, expensive energy leakage, and identifying areas of moisture in a way that is cost-effective and non-destructive. There’s no need for scaffolding! Drones quickly locate the area where is trapped in subsurface insulation, allowing for targeted repairs of only the damaged areas.
For solar panel inspections, thermal imaging is paired with cutting-edge drone technology to identify issues affecting the performance of solar energy systems. UAVs can capture detailed data in order to pinpoint issues within the system, such as the degradation of photovoltaic cells, before these problems escalate. Thermal imaging can help identify anomalies, including defective cells operating above the maximum working temperature, and poor connections between the cells and protection diodes, that may lead to failure of equipment and the system. Once identified by the drone, the repair can then be called in, saving both time and money.
Ferntech Solar Panel Inspection Examples
Product recommendation: The DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise Thermal
CASE STUDY
Drones at work at the Tararua District Council
After investing in a number of craft for the Tararua District Council, customer and Tararua District Council Manager Peter Wimsett has a wealth of experience in the various ways in which local authorities can utilise drones to their advantage across their operations. At the ALGIM Conference, Wimsett explained to delegates how in over 10 months of employing drones the Council has over 130 gigabytes — or approximately 20 hours — of video data that showcases the wide breadth of functionality.
“The technology to display and calculate data is amazing, and now attainable even for the smallest of councils. It makes sense too — we think in pictures and better understand things when we are shown images. The business case was easy: the efficiency and time saving; planning and decision-making; health and safety; and quality of data is clear. The technology has now arrived.”
Route 52: Road wash-out reconstruction. Aerial shot taken by one of Tararua District Council's drones as part of a video to provide a sense of the complexity of the project for other team members.
Our key products for Asset Inspection
DJI MATRICE 350 RTK
The DJI Matrice 350 RTK equipped with the Zenmuse H20 series camera yields unprecedented productivity for your field operations. Minimise repetitive work by automating routine missions with AI spot check capability. Save time and get highly detailed imagery of critical areas through hi-res grid photos by activating the onboard zoom camera with a single tap on the controller.
The DJI Matrice 350 RTK is an exceptional drone offering up to 55 minutes of flight time, advanced AI capabilities, 6 Directional Sensing & Positioning and more; the DJI Matrice 350 RTK sets a whole new standard by combining intelligence with high-performance and unrivalled reliability.
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DJI MATRICE 30 SERIES
The DJI Matrice 30 is DJI Enterprise's flagship drone that fits in a backpack. It integrates multiple high-performance sensors into one single camera payload, is controlled with an ingenious redesigned remote control and runs on upgraded Pilot 2 software, which significantly improves the flight experience. The M30 model offers much more power, endurance and capability for rugged professional uses, while its size makes it ideal for easy transportation and fast setup.
Apart from its outstanding performance and new format, the DJI M30 allows professionals to fly and perform beyond their immediate surroundings. It integrates smoothly with the new DJI FlightHub 2 fleet management cloud-based software and the DJI Dock for collaboration with remote and unattended operations, bringing efficiency innovation to various industries.
The M30 series comes in two versions, the M30 and the M30T. The M30 model integrates a 48 megapixel 1/2'' CMOS sensor zoom camera with 5×~16× optical and 200× digital zoom, a 12 megapixel wide-angle camera, 8k photo 4K/30 fps video resolution, and a laser rangefinder which can give the precise coordinates of objects up to 1,200 meters away. The M30T features an additional 640x512 px radiometric thermal camera.
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DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise Thermal
Engineered to serve the special needs of aerial operations in firefighting, search and rescue, inspections and night missions, the DJI Mavic 3T has the same tele camera as Mavic 3E, a 48 MP camera with a 1/2” CMOS sensor, as well as a thermal camera with a Display Field of View (DFOV) of 61° and an equivalent focal length of 40mm with 640 × 512 px resolution.
The Mavic 3T's thermal camera supports point and area temperature measurement, high temperature alerts, color palettes, and isotherms to help professionals find hot spots and make quick decisions.
With a simultaneous split-screen zoom, the Mavic 3T's thermal and zoom cameras support 28× continuous side-by-side digital zoom for easy comparisons.
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DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced
The Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual features the compact design of DJI’s Mavic 2 Series drones with the same array of advanced controls and accessories found in the Mavic 2 Enterprise. On top of that, the Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced allows users to measure temperatures and conveniently store images and temperature data for efficient reporting and analysis, adding immediate value to a range of industrial or time-sensitive operations today from utility inspections to emergency response.
Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced features a three-axis gimbal stabilized camera housing a 4K sensor for capturing visible light and a thermal 640x512 resolution camera for capturing thermal data. Together these sensors allow pilots to perform flights at night, as well as fly in complex daytime conditions like fog and smoke.
Complete Solutions
MATRICE 350 RTK - Multi-Use advanced inspection solution
A purpose built platform that can access critical areas from a safe distance to gather accurate and actionable data. Automate routine inspections and capture consistent results every time.
Solution includes:
Matrice 350 RTK Platform
Selection of interchangeable payloads from:
H20T advanced thermal imaging
H20T high-resolution imaging
L2 LiDAR Scanner
Customised Training Program from Ferntech
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Mavic 3T - compact thermal inspection solution
A compact and user-friendly aerial platform that can be customised for a range of use cases.
Solution includes:
Mavic 3 Enterprise Thermal Craft
Customised Training Program from Ferntech