Fostering open science through a digital open innovation platform – structural health monitoring case study

Abstract. Open science and open innovation practices based on digital platforms can help address the lack of digital maturity and data sharing in the wind energy sector. Some previous efforts to introduce open science and open innovation practices in wind energy have been based around the WeDoWind project, which fosters data sharing through the organisation and documentation of open challenges. In this work, a two-phase Design Thinking approach is introduced for transforming WeDoWind from a platform for documenting and managing challenges (phase 1) to an open innovation ecosystem for fostering open science and open innovation in wind energy (phase 2). The feasibility of the new open innovation ecosystem for fostering open science and open innovation in wind energy is then evaluated. The feasibility study involves first defining the scope and goals, defining KPIs for the evaluation, carrying out the case study, ending with an evaluation of the KPIs. The case study itself involves defining case study KPIs, choosing the case study topic, setting up and managing a WeDoWind challenge (The ASCE-EMI Structural Health Monitoring for Wind Energy Challenge), and then evaluating the case study KPIs. The challenge goal is to detect three fault events with the highest possible accuracy. Five solutions submitted to the challenge include the PyMLDA Open-Code method, a Health Index Monitoring with Variational Autoencoders method, an Unsupervised Event Classification using K-Means Clustering method, and an Unsupervised damage detection method using a feature selection framework. The results show that the case study could be successfully used for comparing and evaluating different fault detection methods. The overall feasibility is rated as "Medium", due to the strong governance, clear regulation, and promising scalability potential. However, further progress is required to make it financially sustainable, to ensure adoption of the results in the sector, and to ensure community engagement to reach the critical mass necessary for self-sustaining growth.