Tue, 01 March, 2022
Field trials of a wind turbine blade (WTB) inspection system developed during the SheaRIOS project concluded in February 2022.
SheaRIOS is a Horizon 2020-funded collaborative project co-ordinated by TWI with input from project partners IKnowHow (IKH), Dekra Visatec (Dekra), LEITAT, EDF Energy / EDF R&D/ EDF Renewables UK, The Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (CRES) and WRS Cathodic Protection (WRS).
The project has developed a robotically-deployed system for in-situ WTB inspections, which combines robotics and shearography to deliver a more efficient, accurate and safer inspection method compared to current state-of-the-art techniques.
Figure 1. SheaRIOS robotic crawler deployed on a WTB at the Centre for Renewable Energy Sources (CRES)
Following successful integration of all of the subsystems developed by the European project partners, field trials were completed at The Centre for Renewable Energy Sources (CRES) Demonstration Wind Farm in Keratea-Attica, Greece.
Figure 2. SheaRIOS project partners reviewing the inspection results
The on-site trials successfully saw the robotic climber scale the wind turbine tower and deploy a crawler robot onto a WTB. The crawler manoeuvred across the blade to an area of interest that was inspected by the on-board shearography equipment. Further tests using a defect sample carried by the crawling robot were successfully performed.
Figure 3. Shearography fringe pattern obtained with the SheaRIOS inspection system
For further information regarding the SheaRIOS project, please visit the project website.
The SheaRIOS Project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 780662