Perceptual Robotics reveals success of wind turbine project

The Innovate UK Research and Development project has been ongoing in collaboration between Perceptual Robotics and Bristol University for an initial two years, before being extended for a further one with DNV. It involved incorporating fully-automated surface defect detection into the data-processing pipeline for wind turbine inspections.

While the capture of images taken during inspections has previously been automated, it is the first time the processing of images was carried out fully automated. The project showed the partners’ system had a 14 per cent improvement in fault detection accuracy when compared with expert humans carrying out the same inspections.

“Until now, wind turbine operators have been left in the dark about the capabilities of fully-automated inspections when compared with manual ones as there has been a lack of benchmarking to show comparisons between the two,” said Kostas Karachalios, CEO of Perceptual Robotics.

“We have shown incorporating fully-automated surface defect detection into our Dhalion system enhances the reproducibility and speed of current wind turbine inspections, significantly reducing costs, increasing quality and reducing safety concerns.”