MIR — Mapping Inspection Resources
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Industry — Wind Energy

Wind Energy

MIR delivers blade, tower, and nacelle inspection data for wind assets — resolving leading-edge erosion, gelcoat cracking, delamination, and lightning-protection findings into severity-graded, turbine-by-turbine records.

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How MIR Helps

Purpose-Built Data for Wind Energy

Wind assets are tall, remote, and expensive to curtail. MIR flies structured blade and structure missions that capture high-resolution and radiometric thermal imagery across every blade surface, the tower, and the nacelle exterior. Every image is analyzed in Scopito — using its AI fault detection and independent Blade Experts review — where findings are graded by severity and mapped to the exact blade, side, and radial station on the Live Turbine Diagram. That gives O&M and asset-management teams the detail to triage serial defects, plan rope-access or crane repairs, and hold a defensible warranty and maintenance history — all while keeping turbines out of service no longer than the inspection window requires.

Aerial view of a utility-scale wind turbine rising over farmland beside a high-voltage transmission line, with a full wind farm receding to the horizon under a partly cloudy sky
The Workflow

From Flight Plan to Work Order

Every wind energy project runs the same repeatable pipeline: missions are planned in UgCS, flown autonomously by AMC (Auterion Mission Control) on American-made Freefly Astro aircraft, then offloaded to the right software — Pix4Dmatic for mapping and photogrammetry, Scopito for inspection findings, and Freefly Flow for in-field LiDAR point clouds.

  1. Step 01UgCS

    Mission Planning

    Each turbine is programmed in UgCS with oblique (circlegrammetry) and vertical-scan flight paths and a fixed Ground Sampling Distance, so every blade face and tower section is captured at a repeatable, defect-legible resolution.

    UgCS mission planner showing a 3D circlegrammetry orbit around a wind turbine on a Freefly Astro route — 300 ft radius, 70 ft AGL, 8 laps, 213 waypoints with an elevation profile
  2. Step 02Auterion Mission ControlFreefly

    Field Capture

    The UgCS mission is transferred by USB to the Herelink controller and uploaded to AMC (Auterion Mission Control), which flies the routes autonomously on American-made Freefly Astro aircraft — pressure and suction sides, leading and trailing edges, root, and tip with high-resolution RGB and radiometric thermal payloads, no climb crews or extended curtailment.

    American-made Freefly Astro drone hovering alongside a wind turbine blade during an autonomous inspection pass, with a field of turbines under a clear sky behind it
  3. Step 03Scopito

    Analysis & Reporting

    Imagery is analyzed in Scopito from root to edge — its AI fault detection and independent Blade Experts analysts (a Scopito third-party review service) annotate every defect, set severity levels, and plot each finding on the Live Turbine Diagram with its exact blade side, distance from root, and measured diameter. Results export as branded, high-quality PDF reports and dispatch straight to maintenance work orders.

    Scopito wind-turbine report cover with the world-map site locator, blade A/B/C Live Turbine Diagram index, severity legend, and damage tableScopito
Services

Services MIR Provides

  • Blade Surface Inspection

    Root-to-edge imaging of pressure and suction sides, leading and trailing edges, and gelcoat — documenting erosion, cracking, lightning-strike damage, and delamination for Scopito annotation and severity grading on the Live Turbine Diagram.

  • Tower & Nacelle Documentation

    Vertical-scan imagery of tower cans, welds, fasteners, and nacelle exteriors for structural condition review and records.

  • Radiometric Thermal Capture

    Temperature-referenced thermal data to flag anomalies across components and support lightning-protection and condition review.

  • Site & Access Mapping

    RTK-referenced orthomosaics and surface models of pads, laydown yards, and access roads for crane planning and coordination.

  • Progress & Existing-Condition Records

    Repeatable collection for construction progress, pre- and post-event documentation, and blade-to-blade change comparison over time.

Wind — Repowering & Construction

Repowering Support, Start to Finish

As aging fleets repower — swapping nacelles and blades onto existing towers, pouring concrete foundation collars to carry the loads of larger rotors, or grading new pads — every phase generates measurable data that is easy to lose. MIR captures it as a defensible record: crop-damage acreage for landowner settlements, as-built baselines of every new machine, and elevation, mesh, and thermal data across the pad, turbine, and connected substation.

Aerial view of a wind turbine being erected during a repower — a crawler crane lifts the new rotor onto the tower while blades and components are staged on the graded pad, with existing turbines across the farmland behind
Turbine erection in progress — new rotor and blades staged on the pad
Top-down aerial of a repower pad showing the turbine, foundation, crane paths, and access roads cut into surrounding crop fields, with a patch of disturbed and damaged crop measurable in the adjacent field
Top-down site capture — pad, access roads, and measurable crop disturbance
Radiometric thermal aerial of the wind farm collector substation showing transformers, buswork, and insulators, with min 57.7°F, max 82.5°F, and mean 68.4°F readouts and a temperature scale
Radiometric substation thermal — transformers, buswork, and connections

  1. Site & Construction

  2. Crop-Damage Acreage

    RTK orthomosaics that measure disturbed and damaged crop area around pads, laydown yards, and crane paths — acreage documented for landowner settlements and restoration tracking.

  3. Pad & Foundation Elevation Maps

    DSM/DTM surface models of new pads, or existing pads with added foundation collars — grade, volume, and elevation captured before, during, and after construction.

  4. Full-Site 3D Mesh

    Textured photogrammetry mesh of the full site — pad, foundation, and turbine — for as-built documentation, clearance checks, and coordination.

  5. Turbine Baseline & Acceptance

  6. As-Built Inspection Baseline

    A structured, georeferenced capture of each new machine at commissioning — the measurable Day-One baseline every future inspection is compared against.

  7. Incoming-Condition Inspection

    High-resolution imaging of blades and components on arrival — documenting transport or handling damage before they go up the tower.

  8. Blade Thermography

    Radiometric thermal passes that flag subsurface anomalies — voids and delamination within the fiberglass laminate that visual imagery cannot reveal.

  9. Substation & Transmission

  10. Substation, Line & Tower Thermal

    Radiometric thermal inspection across the connected grid — surfacing hotspots at substation transformers, buswork, and insulators, plus overhead conductors, splices, and dead-ends on high-voltage transmission towers.

  11. LiDAR Line & Clearance

    Point-cloud capture of collector and transmission lines to measure conductor sag, ground clearance, and vegetation encroachment against clearance standards.

  12. New Substation Photogrammetry

    RTK photogrammetry and topographic capture of new substation sites for design, grading, and as-built records.

Sensors We Fly

The Equipment We Bring To Your Site

Each project is scoped to the required collection method. RGB, radiometric thermal, and LiDAR are deployed in purpose-built acquisition passes based on the required deliverables — RTK-referenced so your data comes back well-documented and ready to use.

  • Freefly Astro

    Freefly Astro

    Blue UAS aircraft

  • Sony 61MP RGB

    Sony 61MP RGB

    High-resolution imagery

  • Radiometric Thermal

    Radiometric Thermal

    Calibrated heat mapping

  • Laser Rangefinder

    Laser Rangefinder

    Direct distance & clearance

  • Freefly Flux O1

    Freefly Flux O1

    LiDAR acquisition

  • Indiana Continuously Operating Reference Stations (InCORS) network

    RTK Positioning

    InCORS NTRIP · WGS 84

Deliverables

Every defect, located and graded

One inspection, one file. Mapped to blade, side, and distance from root, measured in millimeters, and ready for your work order system.

Live turbine diagram

Every defect mapped to blade, side, distance from root, and measured diameter.

Severity grading

Scopito AI fault detection, reviewed and confirmed by its independent Blade Experts analysts.

Imagery and thermal

High-resolution blade, tower, and nacelle imagery with radiometric thermal.

Representative Scopito Output

Inside a Scopito Blade Report

Severity
12345
Scopito Blade B leading-edge pages showing an annotated crack of 1436 by 3218 mm rated Severity 4 with gel-coat findingsSev 4 · Crack

Blade B leading-edge crack

Leading-edge structural crack flagged for near-term repair.

Size
1436 × 3218 mm
From root
36.0 m
Remedy
Repair < 6 months
Scopito wind report cover with the report metadata, blade A/B/C Live Turbine Diagram index, severity legend, and damage table

Report cover

Live turbine diagram and severity legend

Scopito turbine damage index table listing each finding by blade, side, issue, severity, size, distance from root, and page

Turbine damage index

Every finding, severity-ranked

Scopito Blade B pages showing fiber damage rated Severity 4 and gel-coat chips with measured sizesSev 4 · Fiber

Fiber damage

Blade B, laminate concern

Scopito Blade C leading-edge pages showing an annotated crack rated Severity 4 with size, distance from root, and remedy actionSev 4 · Crack

Blade C leading-edge crack, graded and measured

Scopito Blade A leading-edge pages showing gel-coat chips and a large area of damaged gel coat rated Severity 4Sev 4 · Gel Coat

Blade A gel-coat damage along the bond line

Want a sample report for your fleet?

Blue UAS-aligned · American-made platform · mobile field deployment

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More Industries

Explore Other Industries MIR Serves

Telecom

Cell-site audits, structural documentation, and measurable digital twins that support colocation and close-out.

Solar & Renewables

Aerial thermography that locates hot spots, diode failures, and string outages down to the module.

Mining & Aggregates

RTK-referenced stockpile volumetrics, pit-progression models, and highwall documentation — captured with high-accuracy photogrammetry and LiDAR, without entering hazardous zones.

Utilities & ROW

T&D structure inspection, LiDAR corridor mapping, and vegetation-encroachment documentation for reliability and compliance.

Rail & Transportation

RGB corridor mapping and LiDAR data along rail corridors — reducing time spent on or near live track.

Civil Engineering & Survey Support

RTK-enabled aerial LiDAR and 61MP RGB collection — orthomosaics, point clouds, terrain surfaces, and construction documentation for survey teams, civil engineers, developers, and contractors.

Start With the Project Objective

Have a Wind Energy Project?

Tell us what needs to be inspected, mapped, measured, or documented. We'll help determine the right collection method, payload, mission structure, and deliverables.

Request Wind Energy Review