Wednesday, 28 September 2016
14:30 - 16:00 Droning On! The use of UAVs in wind turbine O&M
O&M & logistics  
          

This session will give an overview of the emerging technology of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), otherwise called drones, and their application to the remote inspection of wind turbines, with an emphasis on the assessment of blade damage. It will look at what has been done to date and what the capabilities may be for the future. Finally, it will consider the advantages and disadvantages of different inspection techniques.

You attended this session?

Please give us feedback

 

Learning objectives

• List the ways in which wind turbine blade damage can be assessed using drones;
• Identify the potential advantages of drones over other approaches to turbine assessment;
• Anticipate future developments in drone technology and associated instruments.

Co-chair(s):

Christoph Thiel tb engineers, Germany
Co-authors:
Christoph Thiel (1) ^F Matthias Allendorf (2)
(1) tb engineers, Hohenwestedt, Germany (2) copterproject, Hamburg, Germany

Visual blade inspection with UAV technology

Introduction

Ever higher wind turbines, greater demands to O&M and growing time pressure require new approaches for wind turbine blade inspection. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), also called drones, equipped with various sensors like camera systems, allow taking high resolution imagery of damages on blade surfaces.

Approach

The presentation demonstrates the capabilities but also the current technological limits and future available options of the use of UAVs for rotor blade inspections on wind turbines.

Main body of abstract

With the combination of partly automated flight processes and sophisticated photo camera technology, it is possible to reach an image resolution of 1mm or better; hence it is possible to identify damages and distinguish those from dirt. With a projection system, it is possible to take length measurements of observed anomalies. Anti-collision systems prevent the drone from touching the blades. With these capabilities, the UAV equipped with a photo camera is a fast and cheap tool to inspect the condition of rotor blades or even of the whole wind turbine from the outside (e.g. tower, flanges, nacelle cover).
This satisfies the operator’s duty to monitor the blade’s condition on a yearly basis. It supplements with inspections carried out by inspectors on lifting platforms or by rope access, which are usually only carried out every 4 years. Hence, this technology gives more information on critical components to the operator on a shorter time scale. The presentation will give some examples of successful visual blade inspections and will also address future challenges, such as full automatic flight with distance control, automatic data processing, secure automated identification of blades etc.


Conclusion

Rotor blade inspection by UAV equipped with photo cameras and/or additional sensors is a future tool to complement traditional blade inspections by inspectors. It will provide the inspector and the operator quick and cost-effective retrievable information on the blade conditions, irrespective of their whereabouts. Future development in this area will need to cover automatic blade identification, automatic data transmission and post processing in order to carry out even faster visual inspections.


Learning objectives
The audience will take away today´s state of the art of visual inspection with UAVs: possibilities with today´s technology but also current technological limits and future development areas.