The device will help monitor and diagnose wind turbine damage and faults using acoustic analysis.
Australia’s acoustic-based software and service platform provider, Ping Services has recently been awarded a $A170,000 Accelerating Commercialization grant by the Australian Government to help trial, develop, connect and launch its device on domestic and international markets after six years in research and development.
For the record, the company’s Ping Monitor is the world’s first aero-acoustic analysis tool which helps to continually monitor wind turbine blade damage and reduce or replace deployment of maintenance crews and drones that usually inspect wind turbines.
Reportedly, the firm’s first portable Ping Monitor was launched in September 2018, however, a new solar-powered version is anticipated to be launched in mid-year 2019 which will benefit from a partnership between Ping and South Australian IoT- based satellite communications firm Myriota, allowing transmission of data into the cloud from discrete locations regardless of network connectivity.
According to a statement, Matthew Stead, CEO, Ping Services, said that the pilot trials of the updated Ping Monitor are being conducted in Australia and the U.S., and follow wide-ranging version one trials that were conducted in 2018 that examined analytics and fault detection algorithms.
He added that the Ping Monitor is an Intelligent Listening Platform that can be applied to a range of situations such as surveillance, listening for drones and aircraft, and for monitoring the presence of predators such as wild dogs on farms.
Stead said that the technology’s key feature is its algorithm that can rate the health of the turbine based on its acoustic signature. Furthermore, he claims that around 3800 blade failures occur each year globally due to lightning strikes, sand, hail, wind, rain and accelerated wear in coastal regions causing up to $5 billion worth of damage.
