Ping Monitor

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  • 2019

  • Product
    Commercial and Industrial

Designed By:

Commissioned By:

Matthew Stead

Jon Cooper

Designed In:

Australia

Ping Monitor helps wind turbine managers reduce blade damage costs. It does this by continuously listening for blade damage and alerting managers of damage levels. Ping has shown that external blade damage makes a noise. The outcome is that damage can be repaired earlier and inspections optimised.


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  • CHALLENGE
  • SOLUTION
  • IMPACT
  • MORE

  • Wind Turbine Blades are regularly damaged through wear and tear along with manufacturing defects. Current methods of detecting damage include inspections which are normally carried with people using rope access, visual inspection from ground based cameras or from drone inspections. These are all periodic, manual and subject to human interpretation. The design brief for the Ping Monitor was: - advise when wind turbine blades are damaged - operate in extreme environments - have no connection to the wind farm infrastructure and be self contained - be easy to install - communicate with a cloud service

  • The design solution of the Ping Monitor (to address challenges and design brief) is: - verify that wind turbine blade damage makes a unique sound - use a microphone and local computer to continuously measure and analyse the sound from blade damage - communicate the analysis results via satellite - mount the monitor at a location using magnets on the turbine tower at a position which is not prone to theft or damage - allow acoustic measurements in a windy environment - calibrate the analysis to actual damage levels - solar power (next version)

  • The design impact is both commercial and environmental. The environmental impact comes from the improved operation of wind turbines which in turn increases renewable energy generation reducing the reliance on fossil fuels. Commercial impact comes from reduced cost of wind turbine blade damage repair. It is estimated that up to AUD$500 M can be saved globally with proactive blade maintenance.

  • The Ping Monitor has been developed over a period of around 6 years. The Ping Monitor incorporates a range of key features: a) Intelligent listening platform While the initial use case is for wind turbine blade damage the Ping Monitor can be applied to a range of other applications where there is acoustic surveillance or monitoring. b) Stand alone operation (future version) With the use of satellite communication (with Myriota) and solar power the Ping Monitor is a stand alone and self contained system which can be deployed globally. c) IIOT, SAAS and Machine learning The Ping Monitor uses all the benefits of Industrial Internet of Things, Software as a Service and Machine Learning to delivery the unique benefits.