To operate wind power plants economically, maintenance work has to be scheduled for low wind seasons. Therefore  reliable condition monitoring systems are required. With these systems faults could be detected in an early stage, well before affecting system behavior or causing secondary damage.  Condition monitoring systems provide maintenance information with a long lead time enabling purposive maintenance.

DLR is studying monitoring technologies based on innovative thin-film sensors. As far as monitoring electro-mechanical actuators is concerned, research is in an advanced stage. A new subject for research is to analyze whether thin-film sensor based systems can be used in wind power plants to monitor rotating mechanical components.