LiDAR Assisted Camera Inspection of Wind Turbines: Experimental Study

Abstract

In the fight against global climate change, the number of wind turbines installed globally is increasing. These complex structures need continuous inspection to asses their state and to repair them if needed. For this reason, wind turbine inspection activities have increased globally. This work proposes a method for how to improve the quality of data produced by visual unmanned aerial vehicles in wind turbine inspections. To accomplish this task, a multi-beam LiDAR is used in combination with an RGB camera. The LiDAR measures the distance from the camera to the wind turbine accurately. Additionally, the size of possible damages on the structure of the wind turbine are estimated, which is a valuable information to asses potential structural damages that may affect the long term productive life-cycle of a wind turbine.