Pulsed thermography digital motion stabilization for the unmanned vehicle inspection of solar farms and GFRP wind blades through UAVs and UGVs

Beñat Urtasun; Pablo López de Uralde; Karlos Velar; Eider Gorostegui-Colinas; Joonas Neelov; Steve Wright; Matthew Studley; Pedro Lima; Alberto Vale; Meysam Basiri

doi:10.1117/12.2585902

12 April 2021 Pulsed thermography digital motion stabilization for the unmanned vehicle inspection of solar farms and GFRP wind blades through UAVs and UGVs

Beñat Urtasun, Pablo López de Uralde, Karlos Velar, Eider Gorostegui-Colinas, Joonas Neelov, Steve Wright, Matthew Studley, Pedro Lima, Alberto Vale, Meysam Basiri

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Proceedings Volume 11743, Thermosense: Thermal Infrared Applications XLIII; 1174307 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2585902
Event: SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing, 2021, Online Only

Abstract

The quality control of structures and fuselages in both the wind-turbine and solar sectors is a fundamental part that allows a lifetime assessment of their elements, from its initial assembly to the recurring inspection cycles. Automating the active thermography on this scale, cannot be achieved with conventional industrial robots. Unmanned vehicles, such UAVs and UGVs, present distinctive advantages that should certainly be exploited, but, its inherent static motion is one of the main stumbling blocks towards its use in an active thermography inspection. In this paper, a two-step digital stabilization scheme has demonstrated its efficacy in real defects located in both a wind blade and solar panel. The combination of a featurebased registration algorithm and a dense parametric optical flow direct alignment has enabled the pseudo-static reconstruction of the thermograms. The adopted experimental methodology, employing a robot with both halogens and IR camera, subjected to random motions with varying speed and amplitudes, has allowed a direct repeatable comparison of static and stabilized phase images. The phase image contrast comparison of both static and dynamic tests, have been carried out on a flat bottom hole (FBH) wind blade GFRP sample, showing nearly identical phase contrast with marginal differences. Likewise, a real GFRP wind-blade impact delamination defect has also reached a close phase contrast regarding its counterpart, albeit with a decreased contrast. Additionally, the registration algorithm has been used to stitch the individual frames, derived from a dynamic recording of an electroluminescent solar panel, to allow for a unified detection and mapping of defects.

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Beñat Urtasun, Pablo López de Uralde, Karlos Velar, Eider Gorostegui-Colinas, Joonas Neelov, Steve Wright, Matthew Studley, Pedro Lima, Alberto Vale, and Meysam Basiri "Pulsed thermography digital motion stabilization for the unmanned vehicle inspection of solar farms and GFRP wind blades through UAVs and UGVs", Proc. SPIE 11743, Thermosense: Thermal Infrared Applications XLIII, 1174307 (12 April 2021); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2585902

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