Authors:
Ivan Nikolov
and
Claus Madsen
Affiliation:
Aalborg University, Denmark
Keyword(s):
Localization, Mapping, Scanning, LiDAR, IMU, UAV, SLAM, Wind Turbine Blades Inspection.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Active and Robot Vision
;
Applications
;
Computer Vision, Visualization and Computer Graphics
;
Motion, Tracking and Stereo Vision
;
Optical Flow and Motion Analyses
;
Pattern Recognition
;
Robotics
;
Software Engineering
;
Tracking and Visual Navigation
Abstract:
The wind energy sector faces a constant need for annual inspections of wind turbine blades for damage, erosion
and cracks. These inspections are an important part of the wind turbine life cycle and can be very costly and
hazardous to specialists. This has led to the use of automated drone inspections and the need for accurate,
robust and inexpensive systems for localization of drones relative to the wing. Due to the lack of visual
and geometrical features on the wind turbine blade, conventional SLAM algorithms have a limited use. We
propose a cost-effective, easy to implement and extend system for on-site outdoor localization and mapping in
low feature environment using the inexpensive RPLIDAR and an 9-DOF IMU. Our algorithm geometrically
simplifies the wind turbine blade 2D cross-section to an elliptical model and uses it for distance and shape
correction. We show that the proposed algorithm gives localization error between 1 and 20 cm depending on
the position of the LiDAR compared
to the blade and a maximum mapping error of 4 cm at distances between
1.5 and 3 meters from the blade. These results are satisfactory for positioning and capturing the overall shape
of the blade.
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