SunMap: Towards Unattended Maintenance of Photovoltaic Plants Using Drone Photogrammetry

Hernández-López, David; Oña, Esteban Ruiz de; Moreno, Miguel A.; Aguilera, Diego González

doi:10.3390/drones7020129

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…The most recent studies have tended to use LiDAR devices onboard, as they provide a higher density of points and particularly good performance for digitizing power lines and calculating vegetation heights and volumes to estimate fuel models. Additionally, RGB and thermal infrared (TIR) cameras can assist in the monitoring of hotspots [5][6][7], the recognition of persons and animals [8], or even enhancing the management of field teams [9]. Forest restoration and recovery in post-fire scenarios is crucial for improving/studying recovery and measuring fire severity, allowing quicker intervention [10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Novel Drone Design Based on a Reconfigurable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Wildfire Management

Perikleous,

Koustas,

Velanas

et al. 2024

Drones

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Our study introduces a new approach, leveraging robotics technology and remote sensing for multifaceted applications in forest and wildfire management. Presented in this paper is PULSAR, an innovative UAV with reconfigurable capabilities, able of operating as a quadcopter, a co-axial quadcopter, and a standalone octocopter. Tailored to diverse operational requirements, PULSAR accommodates multiple payloads, showcasing its adaptability and versatility. This paper meticulously details material selection and design methods, encompassing both initial and detailed design, while the electronics design section seamlessly integrates essential avionic components. The 3D drone layout design, accomplished using SOLIDWORKS, enhances understanding by showcasing all three different configurations of PULSAR’s structure. Serving a dual purpose, this study highlights UAV applications in forest and wildfire management, particularly in detailed forest mapping, edge computing, and cartographic product generation, as well as detection and tracking of elements, illustrating how a UAV can be a valuable tool. Following the analysis of applications, this paper presents the selection and integration of payloads onto the UAV. Simultaneously, each of the three distinct UAV configurations is matched with a specific forest application, ensuring optimal performance and efficiency. Lastly, computational validation of the UAV’s main components’ structural integrity is achieved through finite element analysis (FEA), affirming the absence of issues regarding stress and displacement. In conclusion, this research underscores the efficacy of PULSAR, marking a significant leap forward in applying robotics technology for wildfire science.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Novel Drone Design Based on a Reconfigurable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Wildfire Management

Perikleous,

Koustas,

Velanas

et al. 2024

Drones

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Currently, most of the UAV applications in PV inspection are based on photogrammetry, where UAVs are equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) [24]. These elements ensure that the system flies at high altitude from the ground, guaranteeing proper horizontal and vertical overlap of the images for orthomosaic reconstruction [25], [26].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual Servoing NMPC Applied to UAVs for Photovoltaic Array Inspection

Velasco-Sánchez,

Recalde,

Guevara

et al. 2024

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

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The photovoltaic (PV) industry is seeing a significant shift toward large-scale solar plants, where traditional inspection methods have proven to be time-consuming and costly. Currently, the predominant approach to PV inspection using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is based on the capture and detailed analysis of aerial images (photogrammetry). However, the photogrammetry approach presents limitations, such as an increased amount of useless data and potential issues related to image resolution that negatively impact the detection process during high-altitude flights. In this work, we develop a visual servoing control system with dynamic compensation using nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) applied to a UAV. This system is capable of accurately tracking the middle of the underlying PV array at various frontal velocities and height constraints, ensuring the acquisition of detailed images during low-altitude flights. The visual servoing controller is based on extracting features using RGB-D images and employing a Kalman filter to estimate the edges of the PV arrays. Furthermore, this work demonstrates the proposal in both simulated and real-world environments using the commercial aerial vehicle (DJI Matrice 100), with the purpose of showcasing the results of the architecture. Our approach is available to the scientific community in: https://github.com/EPVelasco/VisualServoing NMPC.

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Photovoltaic Modeling: A Comprehensive Analysis of the I–V Characteristic Curve

Olayiwola,

Hyun,

Choi

2024

Sustainability

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The I–V curve serves as an effective representation of the inherent nonlinear characteristics describing typical photovoltaic (PV) panels, which are essential for achieving sustainable energy systems. Over the years, several PV models have been proposed in the literature to achieve the simplified and accurate reconstruction of PV characteristic curves as specified in the manufacturer’s datasheets. Based on their derivation, PV models can be classified into three distinct categories: circuit-based, analytical-based, and empirical-based models. However, an extensive analysis of the accuracy of the reconstructed curves for different PV models at the maximum power point (MPP) has not been conducted at the time of writing this paper. The IEC EN 50530 standard stipulates that the absolute errors within the vicinity of MPP should always be less than or equal to 1%. Therefore, this review paper conducts an in-depth analysis of the accuracy of PV models in reconstructing characteristic curves for different PV panels. The limitations of existing PV models were identified based on simulation results obtained using MATLAB and performance indices. Additionally, this paper also provides suggestions for future research directions.

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SunMap: Towards Unattended Maintenance of Photovoltaic Plants Using Drone Photogrammetry

Cited by 4 publications

References 35 publications

A Novel Drone Design Based on a Reconfigurable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Wildfire Management

A Novel Drone Design Based on a Reconfigurable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Wildfire Management

Visual Servoing NMPC Applied to UAVs for Photovoltaic Array Inspection

Photovoltaic Modeling: A Comprehensive Analysis of the I–V Characteristic Curve

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