Sulzer Schmid, a Swiss company that provides UAV technology for wind blade inspection, has introduced its latest 3DX AutoPilot upgraded with a brand-new image capturing system, to ensure crystal-clear inspection results.
Mounted on DJI’s latest Matrice M350 Enterprise drone, the new 3DX AutoPilot payload provides up to 61MP resolution images and introduces a precise adaptive focus and optimized exposure settings for each image, allowing the drone to be positioned even closer to the blade, the company says.
Over recent months, engineers at Sulzer Schmid have been working to improve image quality. Addressing the challenge of automated camera settings which can sometimes cause blurred images, the new 3DX AutoPilot sets a new standard for inspection data: ISO settings, aperture and shutter speed are individually set for each image to ensure the perfect exposure even when zoomed in. As a result, image quality is superior in terms of sharpness, image density, dynamic range and exposure accuracy, making it easier to identify and classify damages correctly.
With the new technology damages are identified with greater precision. The risk of missing a damage or wrongly interpreting inspection data is greatly reduced, thus avoiding any poorly planned or wrongly executed repairs. For example, with the brand-new image capturing system, hairline cracks that are potentially the sign of serious damage are easier to detect at an early stage, enabling preventive and less costly maintenance to be scheduled.
