Imagine a robot that can climb wind turbine blades to find and fix cracks. Instead of just looking at the surface, it uses special heat-sensing tools to see hidden damage deep inside the material. Once it finds a problem, it uses a robotic arm to weld and patch the blade, so humans don't have to dangle from ropes hundreds of feet in the air.
Wind turbine maintenance currently relies on humans dangling from ropes, which is dangerous and inefficient. Furthermore, standard drone inspections only find surface cracks, missing dangerous internal defects.
A robotic deployment system featuring a combined inspection unit (thermography and shearography) and a robotic repair arm using resistance welding.
If you are a wind farm operator dealing with dangerous and slow manual rope-access maintenance — this project developed a robotic system that performs both surface and subsurface repairs remotely. This removes the need for humans to work at height and reduces curing times for repairs.
If you are an offshore service provider dealing with the high risk of deploying technicians to turbines at sea — this project developed a system operated from a vessel. This allows engineers to inspect and repair blades without leaving the ship.
If you are a manufacturer dealing with long curing cycles for adhesive blade repairs — this project developed a resistance welding method for joining composite components. This significantly reduces the time needed for surface treatment and curing.
Based on available project data, it reduces costs by replacing dangerous human rope access with remote robotic operation and shortening repair curing cycles through resistance welding.
The project includes field trials on wind towers to validate the system, indicating a move toward industrial scaling, though it is currently in the development and validation phase.
Based on available project data, the technology is developed by a consortium of 10 partners, including SMEs like Aerones, Front Technologies, and Alerion, but specific licensing terms are not provided.
The system is designed to be operated remotely by engineers on the ground for onshore farms or from vessels for offshore farms.
The project period runs from 2022-09-01 to 2026-05-31, suggesting that final validation and deployment readiness occur toward the end of this window.
The consortium is heavily industry-driven with a 70% industry ratio, consisting of 7 industrial partners and 4 SMEs. This strong commercial lean, led by end-user EDP Labelec and specialized SMEs in robotics (Aerones), inspection (Front Technologies), and AI (Alerion), suggests the project is focused on market viability rather than pure academic research.
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