An arrangement to position a part of the tower of a wind turbine to be used during the installation of the tower, and a method to position the part of the tower is provided. An arrangement to position at least a part of a wind turbine tower in respect to a counterpart during installation is disclosed. The arrangement includes a sensor to sense a position of a part of the tower, and means to transmit sensor information to a place in a certain distance from the sensor. The system further includes means to evaluate the sensor data, and means to influence the position of the part of the tower according to the evaluation of the sensor data.

A ground based wind turbine blade inspection system and method consists of a thermal imaging camera configured to detect propagating defects by acquiring thermal imaging data from a wind turbine blade when it is substantially at thermal equilibrium with respect to surrounding air and analyzing the thermal imaging data with a processor to identify thermal effects associated with latent defects caused by internal friction due to cyclic gravitational stresses and wind loads during normal turbine operation. The system permits latent defects to be identified using a ground-based in situ inspection before they become visually apparent, which allows repairs to be made economically while the blade is in place.

A system and method for the verification and calibration of wind turbine sensor systems is provided. The system comprises an optical capture device provided on a wind turbine which is arranged to record the position of at least one light source provided at the wind turbine during operation of the wind turbine. The motion of the light source relative to the optical capture device can provide an indication of relative motion of a portion of the wind turbine during operation, which can then be used as an input to a calibration and/or a verification system for a sensor system of the wind turbine.

Methods, systems and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) wind turbine inspection system. One of the methods includes obtaining first sensor information by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the first sensor information describing physical aspects of a wind turbine, including one or more blades of the wind turbine. An orientation of the blades of the wind turbine are determined based on the obtained first sensor information. A flight pattern for the UAV to inspect the blades of the wind turbine is determined, the flight pattern being based on the determined orientation of the blades. Each of the blades of the wind turbine is inspected by the UAV according to the determined flight pattern, the inspection including obtaining second sensor information describing the blades of the wind turbine.

An amount of the deflection of the blades of a rotor of a wind turbine of the type including a tower and a nacelle mounted to the top of the tower, the rotor being rotatably connected to the nacelle for rotating about a rotor axis and having a plurality of equally spaced blades includes positioning video cameras on the rotor at a root of a respective one of the blades so as to provide a line of sight of the camera along the respective one of the blades to the tip to obtain a video image of the rotor and tip and carrying out an analysis of the images of the tip to determine a position of the tip and hence the deflection of the tip time synchronized analyzed optionally with external data providing load, capacity, power produced or environmental data.

An exemplary system for determining an operating condition for a wind turbine having a rotor, generator, and gearbox, includes a plurality of sensors mounted within the nacelle of the wind turbine. The system also includes a pair proximity sensors are mounted adjacent to the rotor for measuring rotor displacement. A first processor is connected to receive sensor data from the pair of proximity sensors and is configured to partition the received sensor data into predefined datasets, and a second processor configured to format the predefined datasets for transmission over a network to a processing computer.

An apparatus for inspecting an adhesive layer applied about the leading edge of a wind turbine rotor blade is provided, which apparatus includes a heating assembly configured to direct heat at a portion of the adhesive layer between the outer edges of the adhesive layer; an infrared imaging means arranged to obtain an infrared image of a heated portion; and a displacement means adapted to move the inspection apparatus alongside the rotor blade during operation of the heating assembly and the infrared imaging means to facilitate infrared imaging of the adhesive layer.

A ground based wind turbine blade inspection system and method consists of a thermal imaging camera configured to detect propagating defects by acquiring thermal imaging data from a wind turbine blade when it is substantially at thermal equilibrium with respect to surrounding air and analyzing the thermal imaging data with a processor to identify thermal effects associated with latent defects caused by internal friction due to cyclic gravitational stresses and wind loads during normal turbine operation. The system permits latent defects to be identified using a ground-based in situ inspection before they become visually apparent, which allows repairs to be made economically while the blade is in place.

A ground based wind turbine blade inspection system and method consists of a thermal imaging camera configured to detect propagating defects by acquiring thermal imaging data from a wind turbine blade when it is substantially at thermal equilibrium with respect to surrounding air and analyzing the thermal imaging data with a processor to identify thermal effects associated with latent defects caused by internal friction due to cyclic gravitational stresses and wind loads during normal turbine operation. The system permits latent defects to be identified using a ground-based in situ inspection before they become visually apparent, which allows repairs to be made economically while the blade is in place.

The invention relates to an unmanned aerial device for performing a resistance, current and/or voltage measurement at an object, in particular a lightning protection measurement at a wind turbine, comprising a contact element with an electrically conductive contact area, which can be brought into contact with a surface of the object, in particular with a lightning protection receptor of a rotor blade, of a nacelle or of a tower of a wind turbine, and comprising an electrically conductive measurement cable, which, with a first end, is connected in an electrically conductive manner to the contact area, and, with a second end, can be connected to a resistance, current and/or voltage measuring device and/or a grounding contact of the object.