Data Analysis for UAS Wind Turbine Inspections

By Mike Ball / 19 Jun 2020
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Scopito drone data analysis platform

Scopito’s AI-powered drone data analysis software has been featured in an article in PES (Power & Energy Solutions) Wind Magazine. The article details how the company collaborated with renewable energy provider Natural Power to add new functionality to the Scopito platform that would allow advanced analysis of faults detected on the blades of wind turbines.

Read the full article here

Natural Power required a data processing platform that could take in aerial imagery captured by unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and provide the following features:

  • Visual presentation of fault locations on wind turbine blades
  • Measurement of fault sizes in millimetres
  • Artificial intelligence-powered annotation of faults

Initially, as with all the other solutions trialled by Natural Power, the Scopito platform was unable to complete the calculations needed for the wind turbine inspection process. However, Natural Power appreciated the efficient design of the software and reached out to Scopito to suggest adding functionality to the platform.

Scopito had previously focused their development efforts on features for the electricity transmission and distribution industry, and were glad to add to their wind power capabilities. The new features were built directly into Scopito’s current solution, taking advantage of the existing functionality. Fault locations were visualized on a live turbine diagram and updated in real time. After annotation was performed by the system, the size of faults and distance from the hub were shown in the annotation details, and all data could be easily presented in reports.

Natural Power has adopted the Scopito solution as the primary platform for all of their in-house inspection flights. In addition to providing a custom platform for data management, the collaboration with Scopito has helped Natural Power gain new clients, with the ability to showcase the software providing a big benefit.

To find out more about the Scopito platform and its drone data analysis abilities for the renewable energy industry, read the full article here.

Posted by Mike Ball Mike Ball is our resident technical editor here at Unmanned Systems Technology. Combining his passion for teaching, advanced engineering and all things unmanned, Mike keeps a watchful eye over everything related to the unmanned technical sector. With over 10 years’ experience in the unmanned field and a degree in engineering, Mike’s been heading up our technical team here for the last 8 years. Connect & Contact
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