Abstract
This report presents data from equipment tests and software development for the Thermal Animal Detection System (TADS) development project: 'Development of a method for estimating collision frequency between migrating birds and offshore wind turbines'.
The technical tests were performed to investigate the performance of remote controlling, video file compression tool and physical stress of the thermal camera when operating outdoors and under the real time vibration conditions at a 2 MW turbine. Furthermore, experimental tests on birds were performed to describe the decreasing detectability with distance on free flying birds, the performance of the thermal camera during poor visibility, and finally, the performance of the thermal sensor software developed for securing high -quality data.
In general, it can be concluded that the thermal camera and its related hardware and software, the TADS, are capable of recording migrating birds approaching the rotating blades of a turbine, even under conditions with poor visibility. If the TADS is used in a vertical viewing scenario it would comply with the requirements for a setup used for estimating the avian collision frequency at offshore wind turbines.