eDREAM post

In recent years, the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), colloquially known as drones, is becoming increasingly more widespread, both by the industry, as well as by individual professional pilots and enthusiasts alike.

In the context of the eDREAM project, we plan to employ UAVs to obtain thermal signature measurements from target pilot sites to the aid in multi-building Demand Response (DR) characterization.

Due to their ease of combining with state-of-the-art infrared (IR) thermal and high-quality visible spectrum cameras, they are ideal as tools for capturing multi-modal imaging data from structures in an urban or rural environment. We propose a novel conceptual approach by using a UAV to provide a multi-modal sensor-based measurement to be processed by a centralized decision support system on an on-demand basis.

Converting a visible-spectrum / RGB sensor and thermal imaging input into a distinct thermal signature measurement, commensurable with measurements of the same or other sites on different dates and times is not, however, a straightforward task; to this end, a digital image processing component is necessary. This component, under development by eDREAM researchers and engineers, envisages to combine and process multi-modal aerial survey inputs using computer vision methods, novel in their technological content as well as in their context of application.

Authors: CERTH, Greece and Teesside University, UK

Check out our 360 Aerial Survey Demo: https://edream-h2020.eu/360-aerial-survey-demo/