Reliable and Low-Power Communications System Based on IR-UWB for Offshore Wind Turbines

Aitor Guisasola,Javier Cejudo,Markos Losada,Astrid Da Silva,Ainhoa Cortés,Paul Bustamante

doi:10.3390/electronics11040570

Aitor Guisasola, Javier Cejudo + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11040570

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Abstract

In this paper, we propose the design of a low-power wireless sensor network architecture that enables robust communications inside offshore wind turbines. This research work is in the scope of the WATEREYE EU Project, where we have designed a corrosion monitoring solution to work unattended. The architecture is composed of several fixed sensor nodes, one mobile sensor node, several anchors and the WATEREYE Computer (WEC). Our approach is based on Impulse Radio Ultra wideband (IR-UWB) technology offering reliable and low-power communications in these harsh environments. On top of that, we propose a double star network using two UWB channels for the following purposes: one network for communications to send the sensor data and another one for ranging estimations to calculate the indoor positioning of the mobile sensor node. The power strategies applied to our system, at Hardware (HW) and Firmware (FW) levels, are described in detail. Furthermore, we present power consumption measurements obtaining the power profiles and the autonomy of the most important components of the proposed architecture supplied by battery. On the other hand, we describe the methodology to analyze the range, reliability and continuity of the two UWB links providing the packet loss and gaps as a function of distance. The proposed communications system has been validated in three different scenarios considering two of them very hostile environments. Furthermore, one of the scenarios is a real offshore wind turbine.

Highlights

Offshore wind energy is one of the fastest-growing energy sources globally due to its ability to provide power in a stable and predictable way at a very competitive price
In this paper, we propose the design of a low-power wireless sensor network architecture that enables robust communications inside offshore wind turbines
This paper presents the design of a wireless sensor network (WSN) architecture that enables reliable communications inside offshore wind turbines (OWT) so that the level of corrosion at critical points of the tower can be monitored remotely

Summary

Introduction

Offshore wind energy is one of the fastest-growing energy sources globally due to its ability to provide power in a stable and predictable way at a very competitive price. In order to achieve the EU’s 2030 Climate Target Plan, it is necessary to reduce the operation and maintenance (O&M) costs in OWF Nowadays, those O&M costs can represent up to 30% of the mentioned LCoE, due to the challenging access to the wind turbines (WT) and the adverse environmental conditions at the sea, and because of the poor O&M strategies that have been carried out traditionally. The development of smart O&M strategies based on remote monitoring solutions can greatly reduce downtimes for unplanned maintenance and machinery failures. Those monitoring systems can provide a continuous view of the state of the platform, giving the operators the chance to organize the costly visits to the WTs efficiently [2,3]. This paper presents the design of a wireless sensor network (WSN) architecture that enables reliable communications inside offshore wind turbines (OWT) so that the level of corrosion at critical points of the tower can be monitored remotely

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