We are a group of volunteers searching for Koala's, a native Australian mammal. We have been provided with a new DJI Matrice 4t, coutesy of a government grant. I am interested in any other group or person who has experience in setting up search patterns using thermal imaging to establish the presence of animals. The search area's typically cover eucalypt forests of approximately 30 metres in height across undulating to mountinous terrain. My personal experience with establishing a search pattern is with Litchi. I have looked at DJI Hub 2, but it is way too expensive for a group of volunteers. Any assistance would be gratefull accepted.
You can easily setup grid flights with the controller using Pilot 2 (The app you see on screen).
I would use the new Patrol method. With Patrol you can use the thermal sensor and receive notifications when a certain temperature threshold is reached.
Patrol flies a grid like area.
You will find that thermal is not a perfect solution. In the daytime solar loading can make the environment warmer than people (Or animals). This may best be flown at night.
Research Flight Hub 2 again.
It is mostly free. You will have to pay for:
More storage (You get 5GB free)
Mapping Images (You get a free allotment, but they will expire in time)
Live Streaming (You get a free allotment, but they will expire in time. But they are cheap, $250 for 10,000 minutes for a year)
The rest of Flight Hub 2 is free. You can see the drone's position on a map, plan flights (waypoints, mapping, patrol etc.)
Make sure you are not confusing this with the original Flight Hub. You want to use Flight Hub 2.
Since you will have free mapping images, test mapping out. You can map habitats and similar things.
Good luck with your project!! This sounds like a great use case for the Matrice.
