Although they can produce clean electricity, wind turbine towers regularly leak oil, which damages the blades, increases wind resistance, and even has the potential to pollute the earth. By cleaning and inspecting the wind turbines without the assistance of a human staff, the remote-controlled robots can reduce downtime.
The major elements that enable a wind turbine to run and generate electricity are examined during a wind turbine inspection. They employ wind turbine inspection robots—robotic devices used by onshore and offshore wind turbine operators for inspection, monitoring, and minimising wear and tear on the parts—for this purpose. Regular wind turbine blade maintenance and inspection are essential to maintaining the blades’ structural integrity and extending the machines’ life because, throughout the course of the turbine’s lifetime, erosion on the blades results in a reduction in energy production.
The blade is the key component that wind turbine operators inspect and fix. A major issue is the blades’ degradation. Gradually losing its outer layer, the blade’s surface ages, which negatively affects its aerodynamics. As a result, less and less energy is generated over time. The Aerones robotic wind turbine maintenance system demonstrates how robots may reduce wind turbine downtime and boost yearly energy production by 12%. Larger turbines, which are more expensive as power costs rise, result in increased turbine downtime. The towers and blades are cleaned by the Robots, employed for maintenance and inspection, by spraying liquid detergent on them. A filtering station is where they funnel tainted liquid that has been collected from skits and belts. The robots use ultrasonic scanning and cameras to fix any gaps or eroded surfaces after cleaning the damaged areas. When testing for blade damage, the robotic method is both cost- and safety-efficient. This factor is a key motivator for the wind power industry to utilise robots for wind turbine inspection and repair. In the event of downtimes and repairs brought on by the failure of both onshore and offshore renewable energy assets, the approach may be expensive, and failure of safety consequences are taken into account. The wind blades frequently need to be inspected on the spot because they are exposed to extreme weather conditions. Robotic inspection reduces possible risks associated with this, but manual inspection is still risky for operators employing rope or aerial lift access, which needs appropriate circumstances and is expensive for personnel. The difficulties that inspection robot designers must overcome have resulted in a variety of designs, from suction and tank tracks combined with suction to traverse a blade’s surface to suction-cup legs to inspect and repair robots.
A UK business unveiled the “BladeBUG” wind turbine inspection robot, which completes the duty in 35 minutes, or half as long as it would have taken a human. It gives blade inspection technicians using rope access a quick, safe, and economical substitute. A technician lowers a rope from the turbine’s top to the ground, where the robot is fastened. The robot is then raised into position to inspect the blade. The rope is strung between two power descenders on the bottom, up to a pulley at the top, and back down to the robot. For offshore turbines, a top-down deployment strategy works well. In order to perform necessary onshore checks, the BladeBUG does not need to be dragged to the top of the turbine, saving time and labour. “The demonstration revealed the EchoBoltBUG is not only capable of completing a bolt check for any loss of tension, but doing so in a lot more autonomous way,” said Chris Cieslak, the founder of BladeBUG. The concept of a robot independently inspecting a group of bolts without assistance has now become a reality, elevating wind turbine maintenance by improving the safety and profitability for operators.
More than 3,000 turbines have been serviced in 17 countries by the Latvian robotics company Aerones. Given that investors are becoming more interested in renewable energy sources, which is creating a large market potential for companies, the scale-up of wind energy is anticipated to quadruple by 2030. The company is developing new robotics solutions for its pipelines, including a new model that inspects the inside of the turbines by crawling inside and scanning turbine blades, making a digital twin of the information obtained, and a cleaning robot that cleans turbine towers of oil and filth.
