As a member of the BladeHunters team, LARICS entered Stage II of EuRoC Challenge 3: Plant Servicing and Inspection. The project ‘Wind generator remote inspection system’ will start in August 2015. The project proposes an autonomous visual inspection system which will enable inspection experts, untrained in piloting micro aerial vehicles (MAVs), to tele‐operate them as an aid to their mission, while focusing on the inspection task at hand.
The inspection task we propose to solve is the visual inspection of wind turbines while in operation, a highly complex task which calls for new theoretical and practical paradigms. Existing inspection methods are slow and costly, and the wind turbine must be out of service and stopped while inspected, leading to unavailability and causing significant loss of electricity production and income.
Partners on the project are the University of Dubrovnik and DIAGNOSTIQA CONSULTORIA TECNICA S.L.