RIWEA: The Rope-Climbing Wind Turbine Inspection Robot

January 21st, 2009 by Ariel Schwartz

Even the most dedicated turbine-inspecting human may occasionally miss something. Fortunately, a new robot named RIWEA can detect the tiniest delaminations and cracks on rotor blades— even below the surface. RIWEA was built by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation in Germany, and comes equipped with a number of advanced sensor systems.

The robot, which is made of glass fiber reinforced plastic, is equipped with an infrared radiator that conducts heat to the surface of the rotor blades, a high-resolution thermal camera that records the temperature pattern, an ultrasonic system and high-resolution camera.

RIWEA is also an agile climber— it can pull itself up a rope automatically to reach turbine rotor blades.

While the robot could put turbine inspectors out of a job, it will ultimately ensure maximum safety and reliability for the wind energy industry. It will also soon have it’s own feature at Climbing Videos.

Photo Credit: RIWEA

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Tags: riwea, robot

About the Author

Ariel Schwartz was formerly the editor of CleanTechnica and is a senior editor at Co.Exist. She has contributed to SF Weekly, Popular Science, Inhabitat, Greenbiz, NBC Bay Area, GOOD Magazine, and more. A graduate of Vassar College, she has previously worked in publishing, organic farming, documentary film, and newspaper journalism. Her interests include permaculture, hiking, skiing, music, relocalization, and cob (the building material). She currently resides in San Francisco, CA.

Seth

It would still take the same amount of workers to rig that up and take it down. You cant leave it up because the cables would slam against the turbine during high winds and would be easily damaged and tangled + they would not buy 100000s of these for each one. This is simply a good idea for a tool a team of inspectors could use. Looks like it may be a little safer.
Seth

It would still take the same amount of workers to rig that up and take it down. You cant leave it up because the cables would slam against the turbine during high winds and would be easily damaged and tangled + they would not buy 100000s of these for each one. This is simply a good idea for a tool a team of inspectors could use. Looks like it may be a little safer.
http://svholstein.de Wolfgang Holstein

This story is telling lies. There is no such robot – just wool-gathering – wishful thinking and made to buffalo readers – faked bullshit – there is no doubt about blade inspections in situ today have to be evaluated by human composite experts, and this still is true for the next decade – neither infrared nor ultrasonic technique is ready nor robotics are in place to support this complex challenge. And in case it will be ready, it stays as supporting in case of …

Please take care of the quality of your publishing.
http://svholstein.de Wolfgang Holstein

This story is telling lies. There is no such robot – just wool-gathering – wishful thinking and made to buffalo readers – faked bullshit – there is no doubt about blade inspections in situ today have to be evaluated by human composite experts, and this still is true for the next decade – neither infrared nor ultrasonic technique is ready nor robotics are in place to support this complex challenge. And in case it will be ready, it stays as supporting in case of …

Please take care of the quality of your publishing.
Ariel

I think that for off-shore wind energy, where it would be less feasible to ship out workers to check the windmills, these robots would do a great job. Of course, if the robots cost 10x what it would cost to pay a group of workers to go out there, then that’s a different story. There are safety risks with the workers, though.
Ariel

I think that for off-shore wind energy, where it would be less feasible to ship out workers to check the windmills, these robots would do a great job. Of course, if the robots cost 10x what it would cost to pay a group of workers to go out there, then that’s a different story. There are safety risks with the workers, though.