Randall Warnas: The Industrial Impacts of Thermal Imaging Drones

Over the past few years there has been a growing interest in commercial applications for compact unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones. The emerging UAV market presents promises and challenges for optics, photonics, and imaging component manufacturers.

Market analysts predict that commercial UAV sales could quadruple over the next five years. To date, there seems to be no middle ground between high-end defense and low-end toys. This scenario is rapidly changing, and UAV appears to have a viable market in imaging. The questions now are: which applications are the best fit, and when will volume production and adoption begin?

In this industry session, Randall Warnas of FLIR discusses the rapid expansion of drones with an emphasis on the use of thermal cameras on drones. Warnas also covers the explicit ways in which aerial thermal imaging is already altering the way private, parties, government agencies, and universities conduct business.

Randall Warnas is the Global Distribution and Sales Manager for UAV at FLIR Systems, Inc.