@inproceedings{c33919d38c5a408aa42c2fdd11aedfae,
title = "A robotic vision system for inspection of soiling at CSP plants",
abstract = "This paper describes efforts to develop a method of determining soiling levels on heliostat mirrors from images taken from aerial drones. Lessons learned from a flight mission relate to drone positioning errors due to heat and GPS drift, and the challenges of handling lots of data. A method to determine waypoints for missions is suggested, to gather data in a random manner with a known confidence level. Methods of interpreting the images taken are described, including a processing pipeline for identification and segmentation of individual mirror facets. Finally, the paper focusses on efforts to develop and validate a method of determining reflectance from visual images, including development of a sky fitting model, examination of the impact of image resolution, and presentation of the estimated reflectance compared to reference results taken with a hand-held reflectometer. The initial results show promise, currently with accuracy within around 2-3% for soiling cases most typical in a commercial heliostat field, however further improvements is required to achieve the target accuracy of <1%.",
author = "Joe Coventry and Asselineau, {Charles Alexis} and Ehab Salahat and Raman, {Md Arifur} and Robert Mahony",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.; 2019 International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems, SolarPACES 2019 ; Conference date: 01-10-2019 Through 04-10-2019",
year = "2020",
month = dec,
day = "11",
doi = "10.1063/5.0029493",
language = "English",
series = "AIP Conference Proceedings",
publisher = "American Institute of Physics Inc.",
editor = "Christoph Richter",
booktitle = "SOLARPACES 2019",
address = "United States",
}