Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Benefit Assessment for the Structural Integrity Management of Wind Turbines

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with high-resolution image recording devices have found recent application in performing inspection and surveillance of buildings, bridges, wind parks and other civil infrastructure systems. With the concept of equipping a UAV with NDE equipment, possibilities are created for new research areas in the field of structural health monitoring, where a limited number of UAVs could replace the need for the structure to be covered with a multitude of sensors. In this paper, UAV based SHM systems are assessed for their efficiency and compared to conventional SHM systems through a Value of Information and Actions analysis. A case study is developed taking basis in the economic and decision scenario as observed in a wind turbine (WT) operation. The expected utility gain from the use of UAV based monitoring systems is quantified and compared to a conventional monitoring system with a conclusion that the UAV based SHM systems provide information with higher value as compared to conventional systems which may be expected to increase with increasing precision of UAV based SHM systems.