Can autonomous drones detect faulty PV modules?

To tackle this issue, this study presents an autonomous drone-based solution. The drone is mounted with both RGB (Red, Green, Blue) and thermal cameras. The proposed system can automatically detect and estimate the exact location of faulty PV modules among hundreds or thousands of PV modules in the power station.

Can drone IR cameras detect faults in solar PV plants?

The objective of this research is to compare the fault detection analyses performed, for two different solar PV plants, using alternatively an unmanned drone and a manned aircraft as aerial platforms, equipped with different IR cameras to provide reliable and comparable thermal images over the same inspected sites.

Can a drone control a large PV power station?

However, most of these drone-based approaches require technicians to manually control the drone which in itself is a cumbersome task in the case of large PV power stations. To tackle this issue, this study presents an autonomous drone-based solution.

How many defective solar panels were detected in a PV plant?

In the first experiment, 14 defective panels were detected in different areas of the PV plant indicating the possible failures. Depending on the shape and location, the hot spots and hot areas highlighted different faults.

Can unmanned aerial vehicles support plant inspection and PV fault detection?

Unmanned aerial vehicles UAV with integrated thermal and RGB cameras have been used to support plant inspection and PV fault detection [ 74, 75, 112, 113 ]. Many studies in the literature involve the application of different UAV and imaging sensors.

Can a UAV detect a defect in a photovoltaic plant?

A UAV infrared measurement approach for defect detection in photovoltaic plants. In Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for AeroSpace (MetroAeroSpace), Padua, Italy, 21–23 June 2017; pp. 345–350. [ Google Scholar]