Solutions

UAV Camera Solutions by Mission and Platform

Six mission profiles, one payload architecture

The same payload will not suit a perimeter patrol, a power line survey and a long-endurance ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) sortie. This section starts from the mission instead: what the aircraft has to see, from how far, for how long, and what has to happen to the imagery afterwards.

Surveillance
Security
Inspection
Defence

Discuss Your UAV Mission All product categories

Missions

Six profiles, from perimeter patrol to rotary wing ISR.

MonitoringUAV Surveillance
Persistent monitoring of an area, a route or a boundary, day and night, with targets followed rather than merely observed.
Explore UAV surveillance
SecurityUAV Security
Patrol and incident response for sites, events and perimeters, where the output is a recorded, geotagged record.
Explore UAV security
InspectionUAV Inspection
Close-range detail on structures, assets and installations, where resolution and stills matter more than reach.
Explore UAV inspection
DefenceMilitary UAV / Drone
ISR and targeting roles that need thermal imaging, long zoom, tracking and 1064 nm designation in one turret.
Explore military UAV imaging
Rotary wingHelicopter Cameras
Stabilised imaging on rotary wing platforms for patrol, utility and hoist operations.
Explore helicopter camera systems
Unmanned rotaryDrone Helicopter Cameras
One payload architecture shared between unmanned rotary aircraft and manned helicopters.
Explore drone and helicopter cameras

Six scenarios we are asked about most

The same airframe and the same payload family cover all of these. What changes is which channel matters, how far the aircraft stands off, and whether the job runs in daylight.

Solar array inspected with the rainbow thermal palette — **Energy and utility inspection**Solar arrays, transmission lines and substations. Thermal finds the hot cell or the loose joint; the visible channel documents it for the report.

Night-time street scene from the 640x512 infrared channel — **Security and perimeter patrol**After dark, thermal detects and the visible channel identifies. Recording is on board, so the evidence survives a dropped link.

Road with vehicles at 10x optical zoom — **Traffic and route patrol**Optical zoom reads a plate or a load from a legal stand-off, without taking the aircraft outside its approved altitude.

VTOL fixed-wing UAV with a payload bay in flight — **Search and rescue**Wide area coverage in a single sortie: thermal to find the heat signature, zoom to confirm what it is.

Rooftop inspected with the white-hot thermal palette — **Environmental monitoring**Discharge, thermal plumes and surface temperature over water and land, logged with position and time.

Hot surfaces read in the lava thermal palette — **Forest fire and firefighting**Hot-spot mapping, fire-line tracking and post-fire inspection through smoke, where visible imagery gives nothing.

Every scenario above is covered by at least one series in the range. Tell the engineering team the mission and the airframe, and we will name the head, the channels and the configuration.

Most UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) camera solutions are decided by three numbers before any sensor is discussed: how long the aircraft can stay up, how much it can lift, and how far the operator has to be from the object. A 240 g head on a quadcopter gives twenty minutes of detail; a 10 kg turret on a helicopter gives hours of coverage at ten kilometres. Both are correct answers to different questions.

Each page below covers one mission profile in the same order: what the operator actually has to see, what that demands of optics and stabilisation, how the imagery has to be recorded or streamed, and which payloads in the range fit. Where a mission needs targeting rather than observation, it is called out explicitly.

Footage from the payloads and from the line

Unedited clips recorded from our own camera channels, plus two from the production floor. Nothing here is stock footage or a render.

Maritime patrol, multi-target trackingSeveral small craft picked up and held at the same time, each one boxed and numbered by the onboard tracker.

Small-target detection at rangeA small vessel kept in view over open water hundreds of metres out, at the long end of the optical zoom.

Buoy and marker inspectionOffshore markers checked from the air, so no crew has to be put on the water to do it.

Wind turbine blade inspectionBlade surfaces brought up close from a stand-off distance, with the aircraft kept well clear of the structure.

Need footage from a specific channel, range or condition before you commit? Ask us for a demo clip and we will record it on the model you are considering.

What every mission profile comes back to

Weight against endurance
Every kilogram on the gimbal is a kilogram less of battery or fuel. The light class covers 240 g to 500 g, the mid class 800 g to 1.5 kg and the pod class 1.6 kg to 22 kg.
Day and night on one aircraft
A mission that stops at dusk is a different product from one that runs for twenty-four hours. Thermal imaging and low-light channels decide which one you are buying.
Stabilisation at the focal length you use
The zoom the mission needs sets the stability it needs. At 30x, stabilisation accuracy stops being a specification and becomes the difference between usable and unusable imagery.
Recording and evidential chain
Onboard recording, timestamps and geotagged frames matter wherever the imagery becomes a report, an inspection record or evidence.
Tracking and geolocation
Following an object and reporting where it is turns video into data. A rangefinder in the loop provides the coordinate.
Integration with what you already fly
Ethernet video, RS-422, RS-232, TTL (transistor-transistor logic), SBUS and MAVLink (Micro Air Vehicle Link) support means the payload can be fitted to an existing airframe rather than the other way round.

Mission to payload class

A starting point rather than a rule: the platform and the stand-off distance usually move the answer by one class.

Mission	Typical platform	Payload class	Key requirement
Perimeter and site security	Quadcopter, small VTOL	240 g – 1 kg	Thermal detection plus a low-light visible channel for identification
Route and area surveillance	VTOL, fixed wing	1 – 5 kg	30x zoom or better, tracking, 3 – 9 km ranging
Asset inspection	Quadcopter, VTOL	240 g – 400 g	High-resolution stills, stabilised video, close approach
Maritime and border	Fixed wing, VTOL	5 – 10 kg	Continuous thermal zoom, 15 km ranging, salt-air sealing
Defence ISR and targeting	Helicopter, large fixed wing	5 – 22 kg	EO/IR with 55x zoom, designation, long-range ranging
Rotary wing patrol and hoist	Helicopter	2 – 10 kg	Vibration tolerance, 28 VDC supply, two-axis turret

How to specify a solution rather than a camera

Start from the output, not the sensor

Decide what the imagery has to prove: a person detected in a compound, a crack measured on a blade, a vehicle tracked along a route, a target designated for a third party. Each of those sets a different requirement, and two of them are not imaging problems at all.

Then check the airframe

Payload mass against available endurance: the pod class costs battery or fuel.
Mounting and centre of gravity: a 10 kg turret changes how the aircraft flies.
Power: most of the range runs on 11 – 28 VDC, which covers common UAV and helicopter buses.
Control: confirm the autopilot speaks at least one of Ethernet, RS-422, RS-232, TTL, SBUS or MAVLink.

Finally, plan the data path

A payload that records onboard and streams at the same time gives the mission a record even when the link drops, which is often the difference between a useful sortie and a wasted one.

Mission pages point at products; product pages list the hardware.

All product categoriesThree hardware series and four selection guides.Explore the UAV camera range
Gimbal camerasTwo- and three-axis heads from 240 g to 1.5 kg.Explore gimbal cameras
EO/IR (electro-optical/infrared) pod systemsTurrets from 1.6 kg to 10 kg with ranging to 15 km.Explore EO/IR pod systems
TechnologyNight vision, long range imaging and AI (artificial intelligence) tracking.Explore UAV camera technology

Engineering detail

Why mission pages come before product pages

A product list answers what exists. A mission page answers what the aircraft has to do, and it is the only way to compare a 500 g two-axis head with a 5 kg turret without being misled by the zoom figure. Integrators who start from the mission usually specify one class lower and get more endurance for it.

One architecture across the classes

Because the control protocol, video pipeline and tracking module are shared, a payload can be swapped between classes without rewriting the integration. A customer who starts with a 400 g head for trials can move to a pod class turret later without changing the ground station.

HITS gimbal camera payload on a fixed-wing UAV with flight case and ground control station — A pod-class payload on a fixed wing platform, shown with the flight case and the ground control station it feeds.

HITS stabilised gimbal camera payload integrated under a multirotor UAV airframe — Payload integrated under a multirotor airframe, the configuration most inspection and patrol work starts from.

Designed and manufactured by HITS

Optics, servo hardware, stabilisation firmware and the AI tracking module are developed in house, and every unit is assembled, calibrated and environmentally tested on our own line before it ships.