Robot crawling wind turbines for inspection

Wind Industry Profile of

In a first of its kind demonstration, a six-legged robot has shown how it can inspect wind turbine bolts autonomously, eliminating the need for technicians to loosen and retighten thousands of bolts per wind turbine as part of routine maintenance.

Funded by Innovate UK and executed in collaboration with GE Renewable Energy and the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, the project brought together BladeBUG and EchoBolt, both fast-growing UK SMEs with their own separate, well-established technologies. The cost savings to the European onshore and offshore wind fleet could  exceed £250 million per year, according to ORE Catapult. It will also reduce time spent on maintenance, critical structural failures and extend turbine lifetimes at sea, all of which will be... ... More: Official Press Release ORE Catapult

Keywords:

ORE Catapult, robotics, wind industry, Europe, market, EchoBolt, UK, research, BladeBUG, technology, maintenance, critical structure, crawling, managing bolted joints