[Ancapistani]

Honestly, it’d have been much less intrusive and more cost effective to use a small drone. I have a thermal-capable quadcopter that can deliver that kind of imagery, and there are COTS fixed-wing UAS that can do it for 2+ hours at a time.

[reasonabl_human]

2+ hours? Dang, what COTS UAS achieves that?

Also keep in mind that range and payload weight is likely a huge factor here... the ability to deploy and move long distances, circle rapidly at altitude for a wide FOV with frequent insights at new angles... can your thermal quad do that? Does it have multiple magnitudes of optical zoom? The ability to overlay situational awareness info like street intersections based on positional lock?

I am curious. Maybe your solutions do achieve this. But I was impressed from an optics perspective, SA HUD perspective, etc.

[Ancapistani]

> 2+ hours? Dang, what COTS UAS achieves that?

I had the Autel Dragonfish in mind with that statement: https://auteldrones.com/pages/dragonfish-detail

> Also keep in mind that range and payload weight is likely a huge factor here... the ability to deploy and move long distances, circle rapidly at altitude for a wide FOV with frequent insights at new angles... can your thermal quad do that?

Most of it, but it’s not exactly the right tool for this. A fixed wing is more appropriate I’d say.

> Does it have multiple magnitudes of optical zoom?

Mine doesn’t, but they exist. The Dragonfish has 4x (and could be much closer to the subject)

> The ability to overlay situational awareness info like street intersections based on positional lock?

Sure - GPS metadata and camera angle are included in the stream, so that can be added by the base station on the fly.

> I am curious. Maybe your solutions do achieve this. But I was impressed from an optics perspective, SA HUD perspective, etc.

Oh, I am too! I’m just saying that it seems like overkill for this particular mission.

[atat7024]

It wouldn't sit as high/safe, or be as stable.