Descripción del proyecto
Drones que inspeccionan las turbinas eólicas
Los vehículos aéreos no tripulados (UAV) están comenzando a emplearse para inspeccionar los álabes de las turbinas eólicas. En comparación con las inspecciones manuales, las soluciones basadas en drones permiten realizar una inspección flexible y rentable de las turbinas eólicas. El proyecto Windrone Zenith, financiado con fondos europeos, está desarrollando una solución para la inspección de tres álabes en un único vuelo. Su tecnología dispone de un equipo de inspección extremadamente preciso combinado con «software» inteligente. Los algoritmos de aprendizaje automático empleados permitirán mejorar continuamente la detección automatizada de averías gracias a una base de datos cada vez mayor de las imágenes tomadas y sus análisis. Una plataforma especial de realización de informes en la nube pondrá a disposición de los clientes informes que ayudarán a tomar medidas.
Objetivo
"Over the lifetime of a wind turbine, operation and maintenance costs represent 25% of total levelised cost per kWh produced. The majority of these costs are attributed to the wind turbine’s blades, yet current methods of inspecting these blades are outdated and inefficient.
Blade inspection procedures still largely relies on qualified inspectors roping down each blade to manually inspect for any flaws or defects present on the blade. This is clearly a very hazardous, time-consuming (5 hours), and expensive method (€1500).
Other less used methods of blade inspection include capturing blade images from ground cameras and manual review by
experts. However, poor image quality and strong backlight leaves many blade flaws undetected.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are now being used to take pictures of the blades from much closer up. Current UAV's however require dedicated experts for both flight control as well as image processing, analysis, and fault detection.
Pro-Drone's integrated WindDrone Zenith’s solution is a breakthrough solution providing enabling 3-blade inspection in a single flight. Our technology solution is fully equipped with highly accurate inspection equipment hardware coupled with smart software. The software allows the UAV to be fly autonomously, avoid collisions, automatically detect any faults, and generate reports for the customer on each wind turbine inspected. Machine learning algorithms are used to continuously improve automated fault detection based on a growing database of captured images and their analysis. Our ""BladeInsight"" cloud reporting platform makes actionable reports available to our customers as part of this solution. Pro-Drone Zenith provides for a 50% direct cost saving, and decreases turbine inspection downtime by 6X, as compared to existing methods."
Ámbito científico
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftware
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensorsoptical sensors
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energywind power
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringroboticsautonomous robotsdrones
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencemachine learning
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaConvocatoria de subcontratación
H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-2
Régimen de financiación
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinador
2740-122 PORTO SALVO
Portugal
Organización definida por ella misma como pequeña y mediana empresa (pyme) en el momento de la firma del acuerdo de subvención.