Research on refined UAV inspection method of wind/solar power stations based on YOLOv8

Abstract More and more research is focusing on the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) inspection of onshore wind/solar power stations; however, how to balance the contradiction between detection accuracy and efficiency is still a challenge for domestic and international researches. In this paper, for the...

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Main Authors: Jieyi Pu, Qifeng Zhang, Wenbo Zhao, Wei Zhang, Zengren Qin, Yumeng Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2025-01-01
Series:Journal of Engineering and Applied Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s44147-025-00576-1
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author Jieyi Pu
Qifeng Zhang
Wenbo Zhao
Wei Zhang
Zengren Qin
Yumeng Zhang
author_facet Jieyi Pu
Qifeng Zhang
Wenbo Zhao
Wei Zhang
Zengren Qin
Yumeng Zhang
author_sort Jieyi Pu
collection DOAJ
description Abstract More and more research is focusing on the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) inspection of onshore wind/solar power stations; however, how to balance the contradiction between detection accuracy and efficiency is still a challenge for domestic and international researches. In this paper, for the sparse distribution of inspection targets in onshore wind/solar power stations, the YOLOv8 model is used to quickly extract information such as photovoltaic module contours and key points of wind turbine blades in the wide-angle image of the UAV. By connecting these key points in series, fine route planning of the UAV is realized, and the zoom lens is used to carry out efficient and fine inspection of photovoltaic (PV) modules and wind turbine blades. In order to accelerate the convergence of the PV module contour extraction model, this paper introduces a loss function for the difference in linear angular orientation, which improves the average IOU accuracy of the YOLOv8 model to 93%. In the extraction of key points such as the center and tip of wind turbine blades, this paper firstly adopts serpentine convolution to replace the traditional convolution operator in order to adapt the wind turbine blade features, and secondly incorporates the a priori information of the angle constraints between the blades into the loss function. Finally, multi-angle wind turbine imaging photos in desert, hill, rice field, and other scenes are quickly simulated by computer simulation software to improve the model generalization performance. The experimental results show that the improved model achieves 85.4% on the mAP50 metric, which is a 9.2% improvement over YOLOv8, and 6.2% on the more stringent mAP50:95 metric.
format Article
id doaj-art-72269554ee4c447fa1cc95fa13c29249
institution Kabale University
issn 1110-1903
2536-9512
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher SpringerOpen
record_format Article
series Journal of Engineering and Applied Science
spelling doaj-art-72269554ee4c447fa1cc95fa13c292492025-01-26T12:35:46ZengSpringerOpenJournal of Engineering and Applied Science1110-19032536-95122025-01-0172111910.1186/s44147-025-00576-1Research on refined UAV inspection method of wind/solar power stations based on YOLOv8Jieyi Pu0Qifeng Zhang1Wenbo Zhao2Wei Zhang3Zengren Qin4Yumeng Zhang5Shanxi Electric Power Design Institute Co., Ltd, China Energy Engineering GroupShanxi Electric Power Design Institute Co., Ltd, China Energy Engineering GroupShanxi Electric Power Design Institute Co., Ltd, China Energy Engineering GroupShanxi Electric Power Design Institute Co., Ltd, China Energy Engineering GroupShanxi Electric Power Design Institute Co., Ltd, China Energy Engineering GroupShanxi Electric Power Design Institute Co., Ltd, China Energy Engineering GroupAbstract More and more research is focusing on the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) inspection of onshore wind/solar power stations; however, how to balance the contradiction between detection accuracy and efficiency is still a challenge for domestic and international researches. In this paper, for the sparse distribution of inspection targets in onshore wind/solar power stations, the YOLOv8 model is used to quickly extract information such as photovoltaic module contours and key points of wind turbine blades in the wide-angle image of the UAV. By connecting these key points in series, fine route planning of the UAV is realized, and the zoom lens is used to carry out efficient and fine inspection of photovoltaic (PV) modules and wind turbine blades. In order to accelerate the convergence of the PV module contour extraction model, this paper introduces a loss function for the difference in linear angular orientation, which improves the average IOU accuracy of the YOLOv8 model to 93%. In the extraction of key points such as the center and tip of wind turbine blades, this paper firstly adopts serpentine convolution to replace the traditional convolution operator in order to adapt the wind turbine blade features, and secondly incorporates the a priori information of the angle constraints between the blades into the loss function. Finally, multi-angle wind turbine imaging photos in desert, hill, rice field, and other scenes are quickly simulated by computer simulation software to improve the model generalization performance. The experimental results show that the improved model achieves 85.4% on the mAP50 metric, which is a 9.2% improvement over YOLOv8, and 6.2% on the more stringent mAP50:95 metric.https://doi.org/10.1186/s44147-025-00576-1Wind/solar power stationsUAV inspectionRoute planningYOLOv8Loss function
spellingShingle Jieyi Pu
Qifeng Zhang
Wenbo Zhao
Wei Zhang
Zengren Qin
Yumeng Zhang
Research on refined UAV inspection method of wind/solar power stations based on YOLOv8
Journal of Engineering and Applied Science
Wind/solar power stations
UAV inspection
Route planning
YOLOv8
Loss function
title Research on refined UAV inspection method of wind/solar power stations based on YOLOv8
title_full Research on refined UAV inspection method of wind/solar power stations based on YOLOv8
title_fullStr Research on refined UAV inspection method of wind/solar power stations based on YOLOv8
title_full_unstemmed Research on refined UAV inspection method of wind/solar power stations based on YOLOv8
title_short Research on refined UAV inspection method of wind/solar power stations based on YOLOv8
title_sort research on refined uav inspection method of wind solar power stations based on yolov8
topic Wind/solar power stations
UAV inspection
Route planning
YOLOv8
Loss function
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s44147-025-00576-1
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