A robotic vision system for inspection of soiling at CSP plants

Joe Coventry*, Charles Alexis Asselineau, Ehab Salahat, Md Arifur Raman, Robert Mahony

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    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%.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationSOLARPACES 2019
    Subtitle of host publicationInternational Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems
    EditorsChristoph Richter
    PublisherAmerican Institute of Physics Inc.
    ISBN (Electronic)9780735440371
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 11 Dec 2020
    Event2019 International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems, SolarPACES 2019 - Daegu, Korea, Republic of
    Duration: 1 Oct 20194 Oct 2019

    Publication series

    NameAIP Conference Proceedings
    Volume2303
    ISSN (Print)0094-243X
    ISSN (Electronic)1551-7616

    Conference

    Conference2019 International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems, SolarPACES 2019
    Country/TerritoryKorea, Republic of
    CityDaegu
    Period1/10/194/10/19

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