Planning for PV plant performance monitoring by means of unmanned aerial systems (UAS)

The sustainable use of renewables will represent a key challenge in the near future, and relative energy management operations will play a crucial role in energy efficiency and savings for future generations. The operation and maintenance of energy systems are a very high valuable activity to prevent energy losses, and a correct monitoring can detect in advance equipment degradation guaranteeing good performance over time. Present research strives to find out possibility of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) use in monitoring applications for energy production sites and to investigate effects of this novel method on energy management procedures. Furthermore, investigation about novel approaches in cooperative inspection of real photovoltaic (PV) plants was carried out by light UAVs and utilize the global positioning system to find out the optimum route mapping during the solar PV modules monitoring. The purpose of this work is to propose a reliable, fast and cost effective method for PV plant planning and monitoring by means of UAS technolog

Hybrid UAS for HD-3D multimedia system for entertainment purposes

In this work the authors present research activities in the European FP7 SkyMedia project which aims to explore, design, and demonstrate a novel system concept that can provide unique immersive experiences to the user, through the cooperative use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Wireless Sensor Networks and real-time 3D processing during live events

Light UAS future integration in unrestricted airspace

Over the last decade low-cost light and mini-micro UAV systems equipped with light-weight sensors have started to appear in the market worldwide. Integration aspects regarding the light UAV segment into not-segregated environment are here discussed reporting main outcomes and demonstration activities carried out both in national and European projects during different demonstration trials, especially under the SESAR program (Single European Sky ATM Research). The impact of UAS integration into unrestricted airspace will become soon a critical issue with respect to current ATM environment and regulations when manned and unmanned systems will face to operate in the same airspace. The focus of this paper is to discuss research issues, experience and some technological aspects regarding the future light UAS segment, giving recommendations and guidelines based on real flight tests of UAS integration in air traffic scenarios

Airborne Unmanned Monitoring System for Coastal Erosion Assessment

Large scale and quantitative erosion assessment is one of the most important tools in the development of coastal management policies. In fact, any defense program or resource research planning to be carried out by the Public Administration needs updated knowledge of beach evolution and of the factors influencing this environment. Remote observation techniques have improved greatly during recent years and the availability of high-resolution images now allows systematic monitoring of beach and coastal environment evolution. Shoreline detection needs several digital processing and ancillary data, such as tide values, barometric pressure and wash zone slope. Nowadays data collection can be performed by unmanned aircrafts that can act as collector of different data from a ground layer. In this context hybrid Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platforms can be used as an effective tool to perform accurate data acquisition. They are easy to deploy, cost effective and able to cover long distances performing different tasks at the same time. In this work, a real test case performed over a Marine Protected Area (MPA), located in the northern coast of Tuscany (Italy), is reported to prove effectiveness and reliability of such technology

UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES IN PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS MONITORING APPLICATIONS

Over the past few decades, the world has seen a revolution in solar energy technology. Operation and maintenance of Photovoltaic (PV) systems is becoming very crucial and a high valuable activity to meet future energy efficiency requirements. Therefore, investigation on Photovoltaic (PV) system inspection must be developed to obtain appropriate and efficient methods. Current experimental research strives to find out possibility of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAVs) or Systems (UASs) in monitoring application of Photovoltaic modules. For this purpose, a light Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was employed to cooperate in Photovoltaic (PV) modules inspection by thermal imaging and visual cameras onboard in SolarTech laboratory and a real PV plant in Italy. However, the main scientific innovation of this experimental study is to propose a novel concept and method to contribute UAVs application in Photovoltaic (PV) systems inspection. The preliminary results show that Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) cooperation in Photovoltaic (PV) systems monitoring was effective to detect degradation and defects on Photovoltaic (PV) modules and it is much more reliable, fast and cost effective in comparison with traditional methods

An approach to the cell-level diagnosis of malfunctioning events in PV panels from aerial thermal maps

This chapter presents an innovative approach to the cell-level diagnosis of malfunctioning events in photovoltaic (PV) panels from the processing of temperature maps taken from low-flying drones. The application of a detailed power balance equation allows deriving the electrical power generated or dissipated by each cell with a reasonable degree of accuracy. The method is tested by emulating the experimental temperature maps through accurate 3-D thermal simulations of the panel for some cases of interest

An approach to the cell-level diagnosis of malfunctioning events in PV panels from aerial thermal maps

This chapter presents an innovative approach to the cell-level diagnosis of malfunctioning events in photovoltaic (PV) panels from the processing of temperature maps taken from low-flying drones. The application of a detailed power balance equation allows deriving the electrical power generated or dissipated by each cell with a reasonable degree of accuracy. The method is tested by emulating the experimental temperature maps through accurate 3-D thermal simulations of the panel for some cases of interest