Drone Control

Challenge

Today, inspecting offshore wind turbines requires large amounts of energy and resources. Ships, pilots capable of operating them, and personnel that can climb up to access the wind turbines are all needed. Drones are ideal as inspection tools for offshore wind turbines, as autonomous inspections can save money, time, and energy, while still serving as an effective solution for the collection of inspection data for expert analysis at a later time.

Solution idea

The goal of the project is to be able to navigate from a central location, such as Upteko’s charging station that is currently under development, to a specific wind turbine via the optimal obstacle-free path, and inspect the wind turbine’s blades and tower. GPS information about the wind turbines will facilitate this, making it possible to create obstacle-free paths without ships or other wind turbines in the way.

To that end, an autonomous drone solution must be developed, capable of using GPS to fly to and from individual wind turbines, inspect them, and return data for later analysis.

Project deliverables

A control system based on GPS data for guiding drones to and from wind turbines, as well as inspection algorithms.

Problem owners

• Upteko

Problem solvers

• DIS (Dansk Ingeniørservice A/S)
• AU Aarhus Universitet

This project is financed by Energy Cluster Denmark’s Promoting Innovation in Green Energy Technology (FIE, from the Danish initials) support programme. It offers three years of support to allow small- and medium-sized businesses to collaboratively develop innovative electronic products focused on energy optimisation. The FIE project is supported by the European Regional Development Fund.

Project video presentation