Find the dead panel.

What a solar inspection drone actually needs

Finding a failing panel from the air takes a specific machine, not a generic camera drone. Four things decide whether the aircraft does the job:

A thermal imaging payload

Dead cells, cracked strings, and failing bypass diodes show up as temperature anomalies long before they show up in yield reports. The drone carries a radiometric thermal camera as its working payload, and the airframe has to be sized around that camera's weight and mounting, not the other way around.

Endurance matched to the array

Battery capacity, all-up weight, and motor efficiency set how many rows you cover per flight. DRONA sizes the battery against the airframe's real power draw and shows the expected flight time before you buy anything, so the machine matches the site instead of guessing.

Margins for heat and wind

Solar farms are hot, open, and windy, exactly the conditions that sag batteries and eat thrust margin. Every DRONA design passes a physics validation (thrust-to-weight, ESC current headroom, battery sag) so the margins are proven on paper first, and the built-in flight simulator lets you fly the design over real terrain and wind before committing.

A repeatable platform

Inspection is a recurring job. The design exports as a complete parts list with live buy links, a wiring plan, 3D-printable mounts, and a step-by-step build guide, so the same validated machine can be built again for the next site or the next crew.

From a sentence to the machine

You describe the job the way you would to an engineer:

"A thermal inspection drone for a 40-hectare solar farm. 25-minute flights, wind up to 10 m/s, budget around $2,000."

DRONA answers with a complete design: frame, motors, ESCs, battery, flight controller, and the thermal payload, validated for compatibility and physics, priced from live vendor listings, and rendered in 3D. Ask for changes in plain English ("longer flights", "quieter props") and the whole build re-validates after each one.

Common questions

Why thermal instead of visual inspection?

Visual imagery finds dirt and breakage; thermal finds the electrical faults that silently cost yield: hot spots, dead strings, and diode failures. Most solar inspection programs fly both, with thermal as the payload that pays for the flight.

Can DRONA design for a specific camera I already own?

Yes. Tell DRONA the payload and its weight, and the airframe, motors, and battery are sized around carrying it, with the physics validated before you order parts.

What does the design cost me before I build it?

Designing runs on DRONA credits (new accounts start with free trial credits). The parts list shows the real hardware cost from live listings before you spend anything on components.