Climbing Ring Robot for Inspection of Offshore Wind Turbines

Leon-Rodriguez, Hernando; Bridge, B.; Sattar, TP

doi:10.1142/9789812835772_0067

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…There have been various other climbing robots based on different adhesion and locomotion mechanisms reported recently. 64,[97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105] The Limpet II In this work, we introduce our modular, untethered hybrid robot-Limpet II-which uses a multifunctional electromagnetic module (EMM) and a sensing module to achieve increased capability and reconfigurability while keeping the costs low. The modularity of the Limpet II allows it to climb inclined surfaces, adhere to different structures, and sense and respond to changes in its environment.…”

Section: Climbing Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limpet II: A Modular, Untethered Soft Robot

et al. 2021

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The ability to navigate complex unstructured environments and carry out inspection tasks requires robots to be capable of climbing inclined surfaces and to be equipped with a sensor payload. These features are desirable for robots that are used to inspect and monitor offshore energy platforms. Existing climbing robots mostly use rigid actuators, and robots that use soft actuators are not fully untethered yet. Another major problem with current climbing robots is that they are not built in a modular fashion, which makes it harder to adapt the system to new tasks, to repair the system, and to replace and reconfigure modules. This work presents a 450 g and a 250 • 250 • 140 mm modular, untethered hybrid hard/soft robot-Limpet II. The Limpet II uses a hybrid electromagnetic module as its core module to allow adhesion and locomotion capabilities. The adhesion capability is based on negative pressure adhesion utilizing suction cups. The locomotion capability is based on slip-stick locomotion. The Limpet II also has a sensor payload with nine different sensing modalities, which can be used to inspect and monitor offshore structures and the conditions surrounding them. Since the Limpet II is designed as a modular system, the modules can be reconfigured to achieve multiple tasks. To demonstrate its potential for inspection of offshore platforms, we show that the Limpet II is capable of responding to different sensory inputs, repositioning itself within its environment, adhering to structures made of different materials, and climbing inclined surfaces.

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Section: Climbing Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limpet II: A Modular, Untethered Soft Robot

et al. 2021

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“…A small, remotely controlled tracked vehicle was developed by General Electric with an on-board camera for visual inspection of blades [34]. A significantly larger crawling ring robot has been designed by researchers at London South Bank University and is capable of internal wind turbine blade inspection and is based on axial X-ray tomography [35], [36] Climbing robotic systems are limited by the need for physical contact, in addition to slow operation time.…”

Section: ) Climbing Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The sensory system consists of an on-board camera for visual inspection of blades. A crawling robot [40] for monitoring the structural integrity of the insides of blades has been proposed by researchers at London South Bank University. The blade inspection is based on axial X-ray tomography with a scanner whose cross-sectional dimensions are 2m 2 to completely envelop the blade surface.…”

Section: ) Climbingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symbiotic System of Systems Design for Safe and Resilient Autonomous Robotics in Offshore Wind Farms

Mitchell¹,

Blanche

Zaki

et al. 2021

IEEE Access

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To reduce Operation and Maintenance (O&M) expenditure on offshore wind farms, wherein 80% of the cost relates to deploying personnel, the offshore wind sector looks to advances in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (RAI) for solutions. Barriers to residential Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) autonomy as a service, include operational challenges in run-time safety compliance, reliability and resilience, due to the complexities of dealing with known and unknown risk in dynamic environments. In this paper we incorporate a Symbiotic System Of Systems Approach (SSOSA) that uses a Symbiotic Digital Architecture (SDA) to provide a cyber physical orchestration of enabling technologies. Implementing a SSOSA enables Cooperation, Collaboration and Corroboration (C 3 ), as to address run-time verification of safety, reliability and resilience during autonomous missions. Our SDA provides a means to synchronize distributed digital models of the robot, environment and infrastructure. Through the coordinated bidirectional communication network of the SDA, the remote human operator has improved visibility and understanding of the mission profile. We evaluate our SSOSA in an asset inspection mission within a confined operating environment. Demonstrating the ability of our SSOSA to overcome safety, reliability and resilience challenges. The SDA supports lifecycle learning and co-evolution with knowledge sharing across the interconnected systems. Our results evaluate both sudden and gradual faults, as well as unknown events, that may jeopardize an autonomous mission. Using distributed and coordinated decision making, SSOSA enhances the analysis of the mission status, which includes diagnostics of critical sub-systems within the resident robot. This evaluation demonstrates that the SSOSA provides enhanced run-time operational resilience and safety compliance to BVLOS autonomous missions. SSOSA has the potential to be a highly transferable methodology to other mission scenarios and technologies, providing a pathway to implementing scalable autonomy as a service.

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“…The sensory system consists of an on-board camera for visual inspection of blades. Another robot [168] for monitoring the structural integrity of the insides of blades has been proposed by researchers at London South Bank University (LSBU). The blade inspection is based on axial X-ray tomography with a scanner whose X-sectional dimensions must be 1mx2m to envelop the blade completely.…”

Section: Robots In Wind Energy Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…FIGURE 19.Climbing robots for inspection of wind turbines: (a) GE robot[165] (b) LSBU robot with mockup[168] (c) RIWEA project[167].…”

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confidence: 99%

Robotics Inspired Renewable Energy Developments: Prospective Opportunities and Challenges

et al. 2019

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The domain of Robotics is a good partner of renewable energy and is becoming critical to the sustainability and survival of the energy industry. The multi-disciplinary nature of robots offers precision, repeatability, reliability, productivity and intelligence, thus rendering their services in diversified tasks ranging from manufacturing, assembling, and installation to inspection and maintenance of renewable resources. This paper explores applications of real robots in four feasible renewable energy domains; solar, wind, hydro, and biological setups. In each case, existing state-of-the-art innovative robotic systems are investigated that have the potential to create a difference in the corresponding renewable sector in terms of reduced set-up time, lesser cost, improved quality, enhanced productivity and exceptional competitiveness in the global market. Instrumental opportunities and challenges of robot deployment in the renewable sector are also discussed with a brief case study of Saudi Arabia. It is expected that the wider dissemination of the instrumental role of robotics in renewable energy will contribute to further developments and stimulate more collaborations and partnerships between professionals of robotics and energy communities.INDEX TERMS Applied robotics, automation in renewable energy, mobile robots, robotic manipulators, solar PV module, wind turbines.

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Climbing Ring Robot for Inspection of Offshore Wind Turbines

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Limpet II: A Modular, Untethered Soft Robot

Limpet II: A Modular, Untethered Soft Robot

Symbiotic System of Systems Design for Safe and Resilient Autonomous Robotics in Offshore Wind Farms

Robotics Inspired Renewable Energy Developments: Prospective Opportunities and Challenges

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