Automated 3D Thermal Imaging of Industrial Plants and Residential Buildings by Drones

Project Information

THERMIDRONE

Grant agreement ID: 718742

DOI

10.3030/718742

Project closed

EC signature date 29 February 2016

Start date 1 March 2016

End date 30 June 2016

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

LANZADERA DIGITAL SL
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - THERMIDRONE (Automated 3D Thermal Imaging of Industrial Plants and Residential Buildings by Drones)

Reporting period: 2016-03-01 to 2016-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The main objective of the ThermiDrone project is to design and develop an automatic vision Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based system able to collect and generate images of buildings and structures in three dimensions (3D) and to include thermal profiling providing 3D thermal models giving useful information for different applications, such as industrial and urban area energy auditing.
“ThermiDrone automated 3D vision system”, is an original hardware and software solution able to take and store huge amounts of data and to process it with complex software algorithms in a new system integrating the AERIS drone with thermal and color cameras and sensors. This new system is able to automatically take and process thousands of thermal and color pictures of a building and data from the sensors, to generate precise 3D models with augmented temperature information. This information is used to calculate the energy losses, their costs and the potential savings if the thermal leaks are fixed. It can lead to energy savings up to 30-40% compared to current energy auditing methods.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

After a detailed study of the technical, commercial and financial requirements of the ThermiDrone system, we can ensure that there are plenty of opportunities in the nascent commercial drone platform market for services as the aerial energy audits and we will be able to develop a commercial solution within a phase 2 project. We are establishing agreements with ESCOs, building owners and other drone operators that are very interested in our solution and willing to participate in the project to test and follow the commercialisation of our solution.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The market for Energy Efficiency in Europe is set to grow at a 17.4% annual CAGR until 2023, and forecasts it will grow to 7,000 million € in 2023. Within this market, the service of energy audits is our niche and the most important driver is the new Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/27/EU (EED) that establishes that large enterprises are required to be subject to an energy audit by 5 December 2015 and at least every four years thereafter. This directive is being adopted in all countries.
There is an important opportunity for us to enter the energy audits market as an adjunct to our current operations, and we are in a very good position to gain market share. The ThermiDrone project phase 2 will be a strategic opportunity for us to increase our activities, turnover and internationalization.

AERIS drone equipped with color (RGB) camera

Thermal image taken by the AERIS drone