A method for operating a generator of a wind turbine includes generating, via a controller, a time series of a plurality of operating signals of the generator. The method also includes applying at least one algorithm to the time series of the plurality of operating signals of the generator to generate a processed time series of the of the plurality of operating signals of the generator. Moreover, the method includes identifying, via the controller, patterns in the processed time series of the plurality of operating signals of the generator to identify one or more of at least one slip event occurring in the slip coupling or a surface health of the slip coupling. Further, the method includes implementing, via the controller, a control action when the at least one slip event occurring in the slip coupling is identified or the surface health of the slip coupling is indicative of degradation in the slip coupling.

An inspection method according to the present disclosure includes a step of mounting an ultrasonic probe, a step of mounting a pulser receiver, a step of causing the ultrasonic probe to transmit ultrasonic waves, a step of causing the ultrasonic probe to receive a reflected wave of the ultrasonic waves reflected by the wind turbine blade, a step of causing the pulser receiver to acquire reflected-wave data, a step of causing the pulser receiver to wirelessly transmit the reflected-wave data, a step of causing at least one of antennas to receive the wirelessly transmitted reflected-wave data, and a step of causing an information processing device electrically connected to the at least two antennas to perform information processing on the reflected-wave data.

Disclosed is a device for the inspection or maintenance of devices, for example rotor blades of wind power plants. A frame structure can encompass the device, e.g. a rotor blade, and be used for the inspection or examination or cleaning of the rotor blade or other object. The frame structure has, for example, an inner opening which encloses the object during use. Propellers allow a horizontal movement of the frame structure and thus, for example, of a robot for examining the object. A vertical movement of the robot can be controlled by a cable suspension so that the vertical position of the examination device can be changed. A detection, cleaning, or monitoring system can be provided on the frame structure for detecting the condition of the object, cleaning, monitoring or treatment. A control station can be provided on the ground or on a transporter or other device.

A method predicting and avoiding faults that result in a shutdown of a wind turbine includes receiving operational data of the wind turbine. The method also includes predicting, via a predictive model, current or future behavior of the wind turbine using the operational data. Further, the method includes determining, via a fault detection model, whether the current or future behavior indicates an upcoming short- or long-term fault occurring in the wind turbine. Moreover, the method includes determining, via a prescriptive action model, a corrective action for the wind turbine based on whether the future behavior of the wind turbine indicates the upcoming short- or long-term fault occurring in the wind turbine. Thus, the method also includes implementing the corrective action during operation to prevent the upcoming short- or long-term fault from occurring.

A system and method for monitoring a pitch system of a wind turbine includes monitoring, via one or more first sensors, at least one electrical condition of the pitch system. The method also includes monitoring, via one or more second sensors, at least one mechanical condition of the pitch system. Further, the method includes receiving, via a controller communicatively coupled to the one or more first and second sensors, sensor signals representing the at least one electrical condition and the at least one mechanical condition of the pitch system. Thus, the method includes determining, via the controller, a bearing condition of a pitch bearing of the pitch system based on the at least one electrical condition and the at least one mechanical condition of the pitch system.

An automated method to determine modal characteristics of a wind turbine tower at an offshore location in a continuous manner includes reading one or more sensor data signals, prefiltering the one or more sensor data signals to divide the signals into a plurality of time segments, obtaining a frequency domain representation of each of the plurality of time segments by computing a Power Spectral Density (PSD) of each of the time segments to identify one or more frequency peaks in each of the time segments, assigning a probability to each of the frequency peaks in the PSD of each of the time segments, combining all assigned probabilities and determining the likelihood of the one or more frequency peaks. Also disclosed is an offshore wind turbine tower having a turbine control system utilizing the automated method to determine modal characteristics of the wind turbine.

The present disclosure is directed to a system comprising a structure being prone to lightning strikes and icing, wherein the structure comprises a shielding arrangement electrically connected to a lightning arrangement, an electric heating arrangement connected to a power source for mitigating icing of the structure, and an electrical insulation arrangement being effectively provided between the shielding arrangement and the electric heating arrangement. A power source is configured for applying a predetermined amount of electric test- and/or maintenance-energy such that the electric test- and/or maintenance-energy is effectively present between the shielding arrangement and the electric heating arrangement. A determination device is electrically connected to the shielding arrangement and to the electric heating arrangement in a way that the shield-heating-voltage and/or the shield-heating-current being present between the shielding arrangement and the electric heating arrangement can be determined.

A method and associated system are provided for determining a yaw heading (θ.sub.heading) of a wind turbine, the wind turbine having a tower and a nacelle that includes a machine head and rotor at a top thereof. The method includes configuring a single rover receiver of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) at a fixed position relative to the nacelle. A GNSS geographic location of a tower top pivot point (TPP) of the wind turbine is determined, as well as an angular offset of the rover receiver (β.sub.rover) relative to a centerline axis of the nacelle. Based on the GNSS geo-location of the TPP and a GNSS geo-location of the rover receiver, an angular vector () relative to North of a line between the TPP and the rover receiver is determined. The yaw heading (θ.sub.heading) is computed from a difference between the angle () and the angular offset (β.sub.rover) of the rover receiver.

Methods for performing maintenance operations using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The methods are enabled by equipping a UAV with a maintenance tool capable of performing a desired maintenance operation (e.g., nondestructive inspection) on a limited-access surface of a large structure or object (e.g., a wind turbine blade). The UAV uses re-orientation of lifting means (e.g., vertical rotors) to move the maintenance tool continuously or intermittently across the surface of the structure while maintaining contact with the surface of the structure undergoing maintenance.

The present disclosure provides a method and device for stitching wind turbine blade images, and a storage medium. The method includes performing edge detection on a plurality of images of the blade of the wind turbine to determine a blade region for each of the plurality of images; and for each pair of images among the plurality of images of the blade of the wind turbine, which are captured successively, stitching a front end of a former one of the pair of images captured successively and a rear end of a latter one of the pair of images captured successively, wherein the front end is far away from a root of the blade of the wind turbine, and the rear end is close to the root of the blade of the wind turbine.