Enabling technology for robotic inspection and maintenance of offshore wind turbine blades

Offshore wind turbines operate in harsh and extreme environments such as
the North Sea. As blades continue getting larger, their tip speeds can exceed
100m/s. At these speeds, any particulates in the air such as rain, dust, salt,
inspects etc. can wear away the surface of the blade's leading edge, a
phenomenon known as leading edge erosion. This, in turn, alters the
aerodynamic shape of the blade, affecting the efficiency AND potentially
exposing the blade to further and more serious damage, thereby reducing
the life of the blade. Whilst the mechanisms that cause leading edge erosion
are not yet fully understood, it can be said that at some point, ALL wind
turbine blades will suffer from some form or degree of leading edge erosion
during their life, which will need to be addressed.

Maintaining blades in the offshore wind sector is an expensive and
dangerous job. Typically, highly skilled rope access technicians have to scale
down the blades to carry out leading edge repairs.

This project aims to take the first steps of developing a robotic device to
carry out a number of these detailed inspections and repetitive repairs on
the leading edges of blades, freeing up the time of the skilled rope access
technicians, enabling them to perform specialist repairs or upgrades to
blades only they can do. This would enable more blades to be inspected and
treated, maximising the electrical output of the turbines that in turn benefit
the owner with increased revenues, maximise the CO2 savings that
everybody benefit from and increasing the security of electrical supply for
the end users.