The Smart Systems Group at Heriot-Watt University, would like to congratulate Dr. Jamie Blanche, Daniel Mitchell and their research teams for the notification of acceptance of their publications. These papers are due to be released at the Information Technology, Electronics and Mobile Communication Conference (IEMCON) 2020. This conference will be held on the 4-7th of November 2020 and hosted virtually from Vancouver.

“Asset Integrity Monitoring of Wind Turbine Blades with Non-Destructive Radar Sensing” lead by Dr. Jamie Blanche

Offshore wind turbines are becoming larger, more complex systems further from the shoreline. This poses significant challenges for Operation and Maintenance (O&M). Currently, commercial inspection of deployed wind turbine blades are performed by rope access personnel using visual and infrared cameras. The Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) Radar gives an opportunity for engineers to collect previously inaccessible information about the subsurface integrity of a wind turbine blade. This data collection technique also enables for safer inspections as the radar can be fitted to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) reducing the requirement for rope-access engineers in hazardous weather conditions.

“An Evaluation of Millimeter-Wave Radar Sensing for Civil Infrastructure” lead by Daniel Mitchell

Critical infrastructure is a dense network of systems which provides vital services such as energy, transport and water. This requires continuous cycles of monitoring to ensure the safe operation of these assets. Current integrity inspections are insufficient at subsurface defect detection. This publication presents the findings from FMCW radar inspection which enables for predictive monitoring of the problems associated with reinforced concrete.

Both of these papers will be available via IEEE Xplore. More details of this conference can be found at https://ieee-iemcon.org/