LiDAR‐based automated UAV inspection of wind turbine rotor blades

The global trend indicates that overall wind energy production, both onshore and offshore, will increase drastically in the next decade. Therefore, presently, much effort is focused on optimizing the operation and maintenance of wind turbines, since these are quite challenging and cost‐intensive. To...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of field robotics Vol. 41; no. 4; pp. 1116 - 1132
Main Authors Castelar Wembers, Carlos, Pflughaupt, Jasper, Moshagen, Ludmila, Kurenkov, Michael, Lewejohann, Tim, Schildbach, Georg
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.06.2024
Subjects
Algorithms
automated inspection
Automation
Flight
Inspection
Landing
landing platform
Lidar
Offshore
offshore wind turbine
path planning
Prototypes
Rotor blades
Rotor blades (turbomachinery)
Ship decks
UAV
Wind power
Wind turbines
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ISSN1556-4959
1556-4967
DOI10.1002/rob.22309

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Summary:The global trend indicates that overall wind energy production, both onshore and offshore, will increase drastically in the next decade. Therefore, presently, much effort is focused on optimizing the operation and maintenance of wind turbines, since these are quite challenging and cost‐intensive. To aid or even completely fulfill a specific inspection task, an automated solution is proposed in this paper. The prototype is built on an M300 drone platform from DJI Technology Co. and is presented here. It requires a single, additional 2D‐LiDAR sensor mounted on an upwards frame. The proposed control and path planning algorithms have been tested in the AirSim simulation environment, as well as in local model airfields and at real onshore and offshore wind turbines. As a result, a comprehensive sequential‐phased mission is presented, which reduces the total time required for the inspection routine to approximately 14 min, representing about half the time an expert pilot may need for the same task. Additionally, a platform prototype that may be deployed on a ship's deck for a safe landing is presented. It guarantees instant adhesion upon contact and avoids unwanted drone backlash due to sudden and unexpected ship movement during the landing approach. Further work will focus mainly on additional offshore flight probes, optimizing the landing platform, and tuning the flight algorithms.
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ISSN:1556-4959
1556-4967
DOI:10.1002/rob.22309