Bird or bat detection and identification for wind turbine risk mitigation
AssigneeIdentiflight International, LLC
InventorsEric S. Wenger, Andrew G. Oliver, Victor L. Babbitt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An automated system for mitigating risk from a wind turbine includes a plurality of optical imaging sensors. A controller receives and analyzes images from the optical imaging sensors to automatically send a signal to curtail operation of the wind turbine to a predetermined risk mitigating level when the controller determines from images received from the optical imaging sensors that an airborne animal is at risk from the wind turbine.
Claims21
An automated system for mitigating risk to a bird or bat from a wind turbine, the automated system comprising:
- a plurality of optical imaging sensors attached to a tower supporting a wind turbine at a height above ground level and arranged with a combined field of view of about 360 degrees around the wind turbine;
- and
- a controller configured to automatically receive and analyze images from the plurality of optical imaging sensors and to send a first signal to curtail operation of the wind turbine to a predetermined risk mitigating level when the controller determines from images received from the plurality of optical imaging sensors that an airborne animal is a bird or bat within a mitigation distance (R) surrounding the wind turbine,
- wherein the controller subsequently automatically sends a second signal to resume normal operation of the wind turbine when the controller determines from additional images from the plurality of optical imaging sensors that the bird or bat is outside the mitigation distance R.
A method for mitigating risk of an airstrike to a bird or bat by a wind turbine, the method comprising the steps of:
- optically imaging an airborne animal with a plurality of optical imaging sensors wherein at least some of the optical imaging sensors are attached to a tower supporting a wind turbine at a height above ground level and arranged with a combined field of view of about 360 degrees around the wind turbine;
- providing images from the plurality of optical imaging sensors to a controller;
- analyzing the images with the controller to determine if the airborne animal is a bird or bat within a mitigation distance R from the wind turbine;
- sending a first signal to curtail operation of the wind turbine to a predetermined risk mitigating level when the controller determines that the bird or bat is within the mitigation distance R;
- and
- sending a second signal to resume normal operation of the wind turbine when the controller determines that the bird or bat is at a distance from the wind turbine that is greater than the mitigation distance R.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.