A Deep Learning Approach for Automated Fault Detection on Solar Modules Using Image Composites

Aerial inspection of solar modules is becoming increasingly popular in automatizing operations and maintenance in large-scale photovoltaic power plants. Current practices are typically time-consuming as they make use of manual acquisitions and analysis of thousands of images to scan for faults and anomalies in the modules. In this paper, we explore and evaluate the use of computer vision and deep learning methods for automating the analysis of fault detection and classification in large scale photovoltaic module installations. We use convolutional neural networks to analyze thermal and visible color images acquired by cameras mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles. We generate composite images…