oa Autonomous Structural Health Monitoring and Remaining Useful Life Estimation of Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Cables

Abstract— Floating offshore wind (FOW) farms are key in meeting Europe’s renewable energy targets, harnessing wind energy from waters 60m or deeper, where bottom-fixed farms are unfeasible. Additionally, floating structures allow for the installation of larger turbines than stationary farms, which in turn leads to a greater energy output. However, cable failures dramatically impact the energy transmission from the farms and cause most of the financial losses. Monitoring and maintenance tasks are challenging due to the harsh ocean conditions. The FLOW-CAM project, supported by European Union’s HORIZON 2020 program, studies the structural health monitoring (SHM) of defects in the power cables of the FOW farms which encompass inspection and detection applications. An SHM system integrated with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) was developed for underwater inspection and maintenance, supporting collection and presentation of essential data through an advanced interface. Image data from underwater systems are analyzed using computer vision techniques. Investigations into cable defect detection and the estimation of corrosion and remaining useful life have been held to monitor cable health, achieving results close to reality. FLOW-CAM’s collective works establish a basis for advancing underwater inspection and maintenance, concentrating on the development of practical and effective tools and strategies to optimize the functionality and reliability of FOW farms.