AI helps turbine-inspecting drones pinpoint their locations

Quadcopters that autonomously spot signs of facilities wear are nothing new -- French startup Sterblue, Clobotics, General Electric spinoff Avitas Systems, and Cyberhawk employ robots to look after gas terminals, oil rigs, and other assets. A problem that remains somewhat uncracked in the drone inspection space, though, is localization -- the ability to accurately suss out a drone's location with respect to the thing it's inspecting. GPS and inertial measurement units (IMUs) provide relatively granular tracking, but more accurate data might ensure better consistency and enable drones to get safely closer to inspection targets. Toward that end, a newly published paper on the preprint server Arxiv.org "Due to harsh weather conditions, wind turbines can incur a wide range of structural damage, which can severely impact their power generation abilities," the scientists explain.