PurposeStructural integrity inspection of offshore wind turbine blades poses problems of gaining access to the blades, danger to human operatives and large costs of removing a blade and transporting it off‐shore for inspection. The purpose of this paper is to show that a climbing robot that can perform in situ blade inspection with micro/nano focus computed axial X‐ray tomography is a solution to find defects in the thickest blade sections and reduce the cost of inspection.Design/methodology/approachThe weight of such an inspection system will be high, typically 200 kg and cross sectional scanner dimensions of 1 × 2 m to envelope a blade. The design of a climbing ring robot that completely encircles a turbine tower, typically 3 m in diameter, will provide the best means of climbing with this payload. Because of the development costs of such a huge robot, the optimal design path is to first prototype a small scale model.FindingsFirst results on such a model are described and from its performance the load carrying capabilities of a full scale version computed. The robot is able to climb either straight up or down, or with a spiralling motion, or rotate around the circumference at the same height. Furthermore, the design is entirely modular thus enabling easy on‐site assembly of the robot.Originality/valueA climbing robot with high payload and versatile motion capability, with adhesive forces between the robot and climbing surface provided entirely by mechanical means rather than by vacuum suction or magnetic force, making the system much safer and easier to manipulate.

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Recently, capsule endoscopes have been used for diagnosis in digestive organs. However, because a capsule endoscope does not have a locomotive function, its use has been limited to small tubular digestive organs, such as small intestine and esophagus. To address this problem, researchers have begun studying an active locomotive intestine capsule endoscope as a medical instrument for the whole gastrointestinal tract. We have developed a capsule endoscope with a small permanent magnet that is actuated by an electromagnetic actuation system, allowing active and flexible movement in the patient's gut environment. In addition, researchers have noted the need for a biopsy function in capsule endoscope for the definitive diagnosis of digestive diseases. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel robotic biopsy device for active locomotive intestine capsule endoscope. The proposed biopsy device has a sharp blade connected with a shape memory alloy actuator. The biopsy device measuring 12 mm in diameter and 3 mm in length was integrated into our capsule endoscope prototype, where the device's sharp blade was activated and exposed by the shape memory alloy actuator. Then the electromagnetic actuation system generated a specific motion of the capsule endoscope to extract the tissue sample from the intestines. The final biopsy sample tissue had a volume of about 6 mm(3), which is a sufficient amount for a histological analysis. Consequently, we proposed the working principle of the biopsy device and conducted an in-vitro biopsy test to verify the feasibility of the biopsy device integrated into the capsule endoscope prototype using the electro-magnetic actuation system.

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This paper describes the design and development of a prototype swimming and wall-climbing robot that gains access to internal tank wall and floor surfaces on Floating Production Storage Oil (FPSO) tanks for the purposes of carrying out Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) of welds while the tank is in-service and full of oil. A brief description is given of the inspection environment and the three NDT techniques (ultrasonic phased arrays, eddy current arrays, and Alternating Current Field Measurement ACFM arrays) that will be used to detect weld cracks and floor corrosion and pitting.

This paper describes the first and successful trials of a novel transportable manufacturing cell composed of cooperating climbing robots for on line quality controlled welding of large scale engineering structures such as ship hulls, large storage tanks and wind turbine towers. The cell performed welds on a 7 metre long by 2 metre wide place configured at several inclinations including the vertical thus covering the typical range of hull angles that arise on a large ship. The cell also performed self evaluation of its work by measuring the quality of the weld melt in real time so that corrections to the weld process parameters could be performed immediately thus minimizing the time spent on welding repairs.