The execution of the pilot tests was carried out at the facilities of the Innovation Hub, as well as at wider facilities in Attica for some usage scenarios in two time periods, 26-30 June 2023 and 18-20 July 2023. Specifically, tests were carried out within the IH’s facilities regarding transmission line inspection, pylon inspection, PV panel inspection and facility guarding. Data on the PV parks were also collected from a larger-sized PV park in Keratea, Attica. Tests for the inspection of wind turbines were carried out at the wind farm of KAPE in Lavrio. Finally, for the inspection of dams, data collection took place at the Marathon dam.
The purpose of the pilot tests is to check first the correct operation of all the project equipment and then the software components developed. For this reason, the entire equipment, consisting of UAVs and sensors, was moved to the IH facility. The following figure shows the entire AUTOPSY fleet at the site where the initial equipment tests were carried out.
Tests were also carried out on the operation of the base station and its communication with the UAVs, as well as the RTK GPS setup. As an illustration, the base station at the IH facility is depicted in the images below.
In addition, testing of the graphical interfaces and the acquisition of image data from the UAVs was performed.
A similar installation was carried out at the wind farm in Lavrion, where the UAVs of IH and TWI were transferred, the base station was configured and flights of the UAVs were carried out to test the algorithms. The base station is shown in the picture below, while the two UAVs during the flights are shown below.
Tests with the VTOL were also carried out at the ICB facility, where after the necessary work was done, a hover was performed in the area as depicted below.
Regarding the UAV of CERTH, an initial check of the correct operation of the generator was carried out before flights were performed with it.
