NOTE: various details of the following Case Study have been removed, due to commercial sensitivities. Upon request, further details may be provided upon approval by the client, and the signing of an NDA.
Vestas – Wind Turbine inspections. Vestas are the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines. I worked with Vestas’s Chief Remote Pilot as we used a drone to survey the blades of about 50 turbines, across 5 wind farms in Victoria, over a period of two weeks. Vestas were using a DJI Matrice 210 V2 RTK drone with D-RTK2 base station, with a state-of-the-art custom LIDAR payload and custom software for flight missions and image processing, to produce 3D composite images of blades, for their inspectors to examine for cracks and faults. Due to the complex and custom nature of the payload and software, this job required a lot of lateral thinking and problem solving, in order to keep everything running smoothly. We both drew extensively upon our drone flying experience, during this time.
All flight missions were supposed to be automated, however we found that the drone would often cease its mission mid-flight, thus requiring an abort and manual over-ride of the controls to land the drone and figure out what had gone wrong.
Logistically, this job was quite difficult, for a few reasons. The first was that the blade being examined has to be stopped whilst pointing straight down, and, surprisingly, wind turbines have no means of rotating their blades, other than by the wind! So the only way to get the required blade into position, is to rotate the turbine into the wind and apply the brake at precisely the right moment. There is quite a lag before the brake even starts to work, and engagement is gradual. Miss the moment, or get the timing wrong, and you need to wait for the wind to rotate the blade another full revolution, before trying again. In light (or no) wind, this can take quite a while! The second issue was that the drone payload couldn’t handle winds any greater than 10km/h. So there was quite a lot of time wasted, waiting for the wind to subside. The third was that Melbourne’s first Covid lockdown had been announced just before the job began, and the “Ring of Steel” had just been setup, putting the whole operation into doubt!
I have, on separate occasions, also been contracted by Vestas to provide manual inspections of wind turbine blades on my own, using my own M210 with Z30 zoom camera. I have also done visual substation inspections for Vestas, using my own M210 / Z30.
Client Testimonial:
“Peter recently was engaged by Vestas Australian Wind Technology to conduct inspections of wind turbine blades for signs of wear and damage. He conducted these inspections on his own with the assistance of a Vestas technician, as well as assisting a Vestas technician in the use of specialized blade inspection equipment mounted on a DJI M210 V2 RTK.
Peter conducts himself in a very professional, punctual and articulate manner, and has extensive knowledge of the drone industry, particularly with regard to inspections.
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Vestas also plan to contract Peter in the future to conduct routine powerline inspections for the purpose of fire prevention, across multiple windfarm sites covering a number of states”.
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Sam Hoffmann,
Chief Remote Pilot and Travelling Technician,
Vestas Australian Wind Technology P/L.
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