Experts in robotics at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF claim their new robot can inspect wind energy converters more precisely than a human.
Their latest robot, called RIWEA, can inspect the rotor blades high up on wind energy converters via a rope. It pulls itself up the rope metre by metre until it reaches the blades that could be up to 60 metres long.
A person would have to inspect rotor blades regularly, which is not an easy job considering the windy elements.
“Our robot is not just a good climber,” said Dr Norbert Elkmann, Project Manager at Fraunhofer IFF and coordinator of the joint project. “It is equipped with a number of advanced sensor systems. This enables it to inspect rotor blades closely.”
The inspection system onboard the robot is an infrared radiator that can apply heat to the rotor blades, a high-res thermal camera that records temperature patterns and registers flaws, and an ultrasonic system and high-res camera than can detect the damage invisible to the human eye.
Furthermore, RIWEA delivers an exact log of the rotor blades’ condition, keeping humans safe.
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Date Published: January 20, 2009
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