PV Inspection Drone (PVID)
Subcontract of Research-Create-Innovate Τ2ΕΔΚ-02467
The photovoltaic parks are the most popular systems of energy production from renewable sources, not only in Greece but globally and will be a basic element of the upcoming smart energy grids. Currently the investing opportunities in the field have brought in the foreground the need of a system that will help the investors as the network managers as well in the search of the proper installation place. In addition, the basic condition of the healthy function of the photovoltaic park is the control of the performance and check functional problems of the photovoltaic components.
Target of the project is to develop and evaluate a complete system, finding an installation place and control the performance of photovoltaic parks in real time with processing IR images from an unmanned aerial vehicle with built-in weather station. This vehicle will (a) achieve a easily a preliminary study for the installation photovoltaic parks, (b) achieve an automatic control of photovoltaic systems, (c) upgrade the quality and speed of control of the embedded weather station on the drone and (d) achieve a real time estimation of damages of photovoltaic panels for better and optimal energy performance of the park. The complete system will consist of:
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The drone with sensors of geolocation and transmission system of data
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Thermal camera and mini meteorological station embodied in the flying vehicle
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Software for the takeoff, flight, landing and charging of drone
The above components will be developed by the cooperating company in the project Altus LSA while simultaneously will need the subcontract (Hellenic Mediterranean University) for the development of the software in searching available installation places for photovoltaic parks, processing software of real time
of thermal images which are collected by drone and detects the faulty photovoltaic panels. In the end, the system will check through remote monitoring and control software, with secure data communication and will be inspects photovoltaic park, which owned by the cooperating company ENTEC.
The system will give the user the opportunity to choose if he will use it for the (a) preliminary study of the installation place or (b) the inspection of the photovoltaic park. If (a) will create a flight plan and the system after the processing of images from the area will produce a report according to the morphology of the ground, the optimal dimensioning of the photovoltaic park and an estimation of the produced energy. In (b) will create the flight plan and the system based on the meteorological conditions in the area and the information gathered from thermal imaging, will produce a report that will inspect the faulty photovoltaic
panels. The user will receive the safe reports in real time and will introduce the functional parameters of the system through the internet. The processing of the thermal images will be realized locally so that big amount of data is not transmitted through the web.