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Project name:

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology for real time aerial threats detection and deterrence (birds, drones...) in wind farms and airports

Status: Idea
Creation date: 22-11-2021

Project objectives:

Summary

Spanish SME has developed an AI technology for real time aerial threats (birds, drones...) detection and deterrence. It is offering to create for the client/investor a technology division under license or financial agreement, allowing to the client/investor to have access, to the intellectual property of the company including the source code of the hardware and software of products, manufacture new units of products, develop new functionalities and adjust effectiveness of neural networks

Description

Wind is considered one of the cleanest means of harnessing energy. Unlike traditional power sources, wind energy is free of pollutants such as particulates, methane, mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. No fuel is required, billions of gallons of water are not consumed during operation, and minimal amounts of waste are produced. As the worldwide demand for sustainable energy grows, thousands of wind turbines are being installed each year.

It is unfortunate then that wind power has its own dark side: thousands of birds and bats are killed annually by wind turbines. Causes of death include collision and barotrauma - internal injuries caused by exposure to rapid pressure changes near the trailing edges of moving blades. There are legal provisions of the birds and habitats directives relevant to wind energy developments that are strictly enforced, for this in the guidance document on wind energy developments and the EU nature legislation, there are several recommendations and examples, some of them include the use of radar technology. to detect the presence of birds / bats and study their migration patterns in wind farms. However, the probed solutions not only reduce collisions by a low percentage but also reduce energy production.

A Spanish company was founded in 2017 by two aeronautical engineers with the sole objective of developing a technology based on AI to be integrated into a multitude of projects and platforms from different technological fields.

The firm have developed solutions for:

- Wind farms: the system avoids the collision of the birds with wind turbines using active or passive methods. The automatic system can detect/dissuade the birds protecting them in a given range and can brake the turbine to avoid the collision and its consecuences such as maintendance of thr rotor and/or blades.

- Airports: automatic system that allows detecting aerial threats in the vicinity of an airfield or an airport with the purpose of avoiding risk situations during the airport operation. After this detection, it could be possible to trigger different actions to dissuade or capture this threat, depending on the type and the risk of the threat.

The solutions include 4 operative modules:

- Detection: it is an automated birds detection station consisting of a computer with up to four 4K cameras, which can detect birds in danger of collision in a range of up to 600 meters.

- Brake: the system is plug and play, and easy to set up, given that no calibration is necessary. Currently, there is enough information for the production and start-up of the detection system from scratch. This action will be triggered just in case of emergency.

- Deterrence: the system works base on acoustic warnings. The sounds are chosen depending on the species that wants to be protected and the distance from the detection station.

- Reports: this module allows generating interactive reports with some parameters given by the user with the data captured by the detection modules.

It is offered to create for the partner/investor a technology division giving them access to the 100% of technical and intellectual property of the company, under license or financial agreement, allowing them to:
• Access the source code of the hardware and software of products.
• Manufacture new units of products.
• Develop new products functionalities
• Adjust the effectiveness of neural networks through the process of labeling, training and evaluation followed by the spanish company

To ensure the technical viability of this technological division, the firm also offers his collaboration and work for the partner to guarantee its success.

The technology developed has been installed both in airports in Spain and in several wind farms in Spain and Italy, demonstrating the versatility of the solution. Nowadays, the Spanish company wants to establish a long-term relationship with other technological companies

Advantages & innovations

There are other solutions on the market that use radar and / or camera but most do not work in real time and do not perform automatic actions to avoid collisions and/or damages. Those that can perform any action, it done stopping the turbine and in consecuency the generation of the energy.

Stage of development

Already on the market


Contact/ source: Enterprise Europe Network (europa.eu)

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