The external shutter ThermalCapture Calibrator – now available for FLIR UAS products (Vue Pro / Vue Pro R series) – enables consistent thermal measurements and increases the temperature accuracy for absolute temperature measurement by up to 70%. A truly unique add-on for the global thermal drone market.
WILNSDORF, Germany, 20th June 2019 – TeAx Technology, an innovative, trend-setting solution provider for thermal imaging technology within the global drone industry extends the success of its unique add-on, the external ThermalCapture Calibrator. It compensates and strongly improves inconsistent absolute measurements caused by inherent limitations of internal shutters. ThermalCapture Calibrator is now also available for FLIR Vue Pro / Vue Pro R cores.
Enhance accuracy up to 70% with ThermalCapture Calibrator
“The global drone market more and more recognizes the power of thermal data, captured by drone technology for further post-processing”, Stefan Thamke, CEO of TeAx Technology says. “Usually, the market uses standard thermal cores. Under certain circumstances, like strong winds together with changes of camera orientation, or low surrounding temperatures, measurements can be affected by non-uniformities and limited absolute thermal accuracy. Those can lead to inconsistent, and sometimes wrong thermal datasets.” Thamke explains. “However, we at TeAx are happy to announce our ThermalCapture Calibrator solution, now available for FLIR Vue Pro and Vue Pro R, which quite impressively improves thermal accuracy by up to 70%”.
Smart FLIR Vue Pro / Vue Pro R add-on: An external and heated shutter
“Some of our clients reached the limits of what is possible with standard uncooled thermal cameras, if they are using them in challenging environments”, Thamke reflects. “As always, it was the feedback of our clients, which led us into a phase of creative thinking on how we can improve those issues”, Thamke explains. And he continues “Since we were aware of the capabilities of the internal shutter and the limitations that come with it, we quickly identified that the best solution approach is an external shutter”. And in fact, studies of TeAx’ engineers led into the concept for an external shutter. It provides all relevant information, that are needed to calibrate FLIR thermal cores focal plane arrays during runtime. The external shutter element is heated to provide an always accurate and uniform calibration target. As of today, that is the only way for professional drone operations, to create meaningful, consistent thermal datasets even within challenging environments.
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- TC Calibrator for FLIR Vue Pro / R – Back View
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- TC Calibrator for FLIR Vue Pro / R – Front View
Third party certification by independent auditors
“At TeAx Technology, consistency and accuracy are one of the core values, especially for any aspect of the quality of our work itself”, Stefan Thamke highlights. “In regards of the external shutter ThermalCapture Calibrator, we want to highlight, that we work with independent, accredited third party calibration institutes, which confirm the accuracy of our thermal cameras”. And in fact, clients of TeAx Technology can request an independent calibration certificate for their solutions.
Use case “thermal mapping”
“In general, ThermalCapture Calibrator makes most sense for drone operations, which are in the need of creating thermal maps with consistent thermal data for absolute temperature measurement”, Stefan Thamke explains the main purpose for the external shutter. He highlights further “If you were to achieve +/- 5°C accuracy with standard solutions, you now can achieve up to 1.5°C accuracy due to our ThermalCapture Calibrator”. And in fact, clients using the External Shutter on the FLIR Tau 2 already are very satisfied with the accomplished results:
“We are using thermal cameras from TeAx Technology for agricultural research with the goal of creating accurate, radiometric thermal maps.” explains Rainer Schlepphorst, from Forschungsinstitut für Bergbaufolgelandschaften e.V. in Germany. „We were very satisfied with the solution by TeAx, but the thermal quality of FLIR Tau 2 – especially in terms of accuracy – did not fully meet our expectations“, Schlepphorst stated further. And he continues “When creating radiometric thermal maps, non-uniformities like cold corners in each thermal image, lead into inconsistent thermal data. Therefore we were not able to post-process as accurate as we intended to. That was the moment when we contacted TeAx Technology again and asked for help”. And he sums it up “I was impressed how fast TeAx Technology developed a solution, which strongly increased our thermal measurements – we now have access to reliable and consistent thermal data, which allows us to create accurate thermal maps”.
Client: Forschungsinstitut für Bergbaufolgelandschaften e.V.
Contact person: M.Sc. Rainer Schlepphorst
Website: http://www.fib-finsterwalde.de/
Comparison between internal shutter and ThermalCapture Calibrator
Testing environment and conditions for the above graph:
- 2x FLIR Tau 2 640, 13mm cores, placed 1m in front of a blackbody
- one with TC Calibrator, external shutter (green path)
- one without TC Calibrator, internal shutter (orange path) – standard
- Blackbody constantly at 40°C (over a time of 60 minutes, it seems that there is a drift of about -0.5°C as both FLIR Tau 2 cores show that temperature drift)
- Both FLIR Tau 2 cores start at room temperature
- One recording every 60 seconds with FFC event shortly before that
Contact us
For any inquiries or questions please call us on +49-2737-94042-60 or write an email to sales@teax.de
About TeAx Technology – A Leading System Integrating Company
Based in the Siegen area, Germany, TeAx Technology is a leading provider for both, thermal imaging technology and special system integration. As lab researchers involved in the industry since 2007, the key staff of TeAx Technology provides extraordinary knowledge and experience within embedded systems, remote sensing, sensor development, sensor data fusion, as well as system- and special payload integration. Apart from that, TeAx Technology is frequently consulted when special expertise for holistic and complex unmanned solutions (e.g. swarming, ground-to-air cooperation, etc.) is needed. TeAx Technology established solutions to some of the largest organizations and government entities worldwide since 2013. For further information, please contact Michael Thoss, VP Sales & Marketing directly at thoss@teax.de – learn more on www.thermalcapture.com or www.teax.de