Colorado-based Boulder Imaging has developed a machine-vision system to help wind turbine manufacturers better understand how blade oscillations affect the performance of wind turbines. The system is featured in the September 2010 issue of Vision Systems Designmagazine.
The story, entitled Vision speeds wind turbine blade analysis, discusses how Boulder Imaging developed the system as a result of the limitations of classical CAD-based analysis. The fact that high-speed Camera Link cameras were remotely located on the turbines themselves meant that a robust solution was needed to overcome the inherent distance limitation of Camera Link over standard cables. EDT’s RCX C-Link extenders, which provide up to 100 kilometers of range over fiberoptic cables, were the ideal solution. Given the height of wind turbines and the likelihood of lightning strikes, the fact that the RCX C-Link extenders also provide electrical isolation from the receiving computer was also important. Read the full article.