Swiss drone company Sulzer Schmid and artificial intelligence specialist Nnaisense are partnering to develop an AI engine to automatically detect rotor blade damage on wind turbines.
The partners said that the initial version will be able to flag all areas of concern on any given damaged blade.
Planned upgrades to the technology will add other capabilities, such as the ability to establish damage categories and severity levels, they added.
The autonomously flying drones of the 3DX Inspection Platform from Sulzer Schmid provide high-definition images and 100% blade coverage coupled with Nnaisense’s AI technology.
“Instead of having to review the entire surface of the blades, they will simply need to focus on the pre-selected areas of concern,” the companies said.
Nnaisense chief executive Faustino Gomez said: “Maintaining the structural integrity of rotor blades is critical to maximising energy output and ensuring the safe operation of wind turbines.
“We are convinced that we will be able to transfer our extensive expertise in surface defect recognition from other industries to the wind industry and are looking forward to our cooperation with Sulzer Schmid, an innovator in its own space.”
Sulzer Schmid chief operating officer Christof Schmid said: “Maximising end-to-end productivity is a key success factor in the highly competitive market of wind turbine inspection solutions.
“Thanks to our collaboration with Nnaisense, we will be able to push the envelope in this area and significantly advance the automation capabilities of our inspection platform.”