RIWEA: The Rope-Climbing Wind Turbine Inspection Robot
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.
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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.
Photo Credit: RIWEA
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.
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.