RES, the world’s largest independent renewable energy company, has made its Smart Pilot turbine blade inspection technology available for smaller drones, including the DJI Matrice 4E. These smaller drones cost less than their larger counterparts and deliver comparable image quality in good conditions, giving wind farm owners a lower-cost way to inspect their fleets. RES will demonstrate the technology on its stand at Brazil Wind Power, taking place in São Paulo from 27 to 29 October.
Announced by RES’ Digital Solutions business in June, Smart Pilot automates wind blade inspections in a single turbine stop. Traditionally, inspecting a turbine’s three blades meant stopping it three times, with a separate drone flight for each. Smart Pilot replaces this with a single automated stop.
Smart Pilot 3, released in September, flies all three blades without stopping, cutting inspection time to just 25 minutes on a G97 turbine, compared with 50 to 70 minutes previously. That is 30 to 40 minutes faster than competitors, saving at least 500 operating hours across a fleet of nearly 1,200 turbines. A single crew can now inspect more than 10 turbines a day. Positioning the rotor only once also helps on turbines stopped from the nacelle, and in low wind.
Smart Pilot also keeps blade data consistent from site to site as operators lean more on it to plan maintenance, extend asset life and manage cost. Training is completed remotely, so inspection teams can be operational within half a day.
Rea Meisinger, Vice President, Digital Blades at RES, said: 'The key achievement with Smart Pilot is not a single feature, but the integration of automation, reduced downtime and high quality data capture on standard drone hardware. This combination allows inspection teams to deploy quickly, operate consistently and scale globally without relying on proprietary equipment.'
Boanerges Jatahy, General Manager Latin America at RES, said: 'Bringing Smart Pilot to smaller drones, with inspections in as little as 25 minutes, puts high-quality inspections within reach of far more operators, and we’re looking forward to showing it in action at Brazil Wind Power.'
As operators look to reduce turbine downtime and O&M costs, tools such as Smart Pilot point clearly to where blade inspection is heading: faster, more consistent, more affordable and built on hardware inspection teams already know how to fly.
Source: RES
