Internal Wind Turbine Blade Inspections Using UAVs: Analysis and Design Issues

Andrius Kulsinskas, Petar Durdevic and Daniel Ortiz-Arroyo
Additional contact information
Andrius Kulsinskas: Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 6700 Esbjerg, Denmark
Petar Durdevic: Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 6700 Esbjerg, Denmark
Daniel Ortiz-Arroyo: Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 6700 Esbjerg, Denmark

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-19

Abstract: Interior and exterior wind turbine blade inspections are necessary to extend the lifetime of wind turbine generators. The use of unmanned vehicles is an alternative to exterior wind turbine blade inspections performed by technicians that require the use of cranes and ropes. Interior wind turbine blade inspections are even more challenging due to the confined spaces, lack of illumination, and the presence of potentially harmful internal structural components. Additionally, the cost of manned interior wind turbine blade inspections is a major limiting factor. This paper analyses all aspects of the viability of using manually controlled or autonomous aerial vehicles for interior wind turbine blade inspections. We discuss why the size, weight, and flight time of a vehicle, in addition to the structure of the wind turbine blade, are the main limiting factors in performing internal blade inspections. We also describe the design issues that must be considered to provide autonomy to unmanned vehicles and the control system, the sensors that can be used, and introduce some of the algorithms for localization, obstacle avoidance and path planning that are best suited for the task. Lastly, we briefly describe which non-destructive test instrumentation can be used for the purpose.

Keywords: UAV; wind turbine inspection; autonomy; wind turbine blade; indoors UAV (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/2/294/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/2/294/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:2:p:294-:d:476313

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().