Challenges and opportunities for UAV-borne thermal imaging

Abstract

UAV-borne thermal imaging involves the determination of ground surface temperature from thermal infrared measurements deploying an unmanned airborne vehicle (UAV). A large variety of UAVs is available and applied for different military and civil tasks. UAV-borne thermal imaging provides spatially distributed information of the ground surface temperature. In contrast to satellite or ground based measurement, the usage of a UAV allows us to obtain spatially distributed and geometrically highly resolved information on the ground surface temperature without the need to access the ground. The area can be flat or hilly, and steep walls and hillsides can be investigated easily. However, some problems, especially tasks related to mosaicking of the images, are not fully resolved to date. We address the detection of the anomalies in ground surface temperature induced by underground burning coal seams as example and describe the challenges and opportunities of UAV-borne thermal imaging, based on our experiences in this field.