Bladesense

The challenge

Due to a lack of practical inspection methods, wind turbine operators have no clear image of the state of the internal structure of their wind turbine blades. Cracks and other defects are only detected when they emerge on the surface and are already in an advanced stage. Repairs of these defects can take up to a week of downtime.

The solution

A surface crawling robot that walks over the surface and inspects it with ultrasonic sensors. We provide a complete and reliable picture of the internal structure and potential defects. Inspections will be executed autonomously to reduce the need for human intervention. Cracks and other internal defects can be detected in an early stage before they grow into major failures. Repairing the defects when they are only small, saves costs and downtime in the long run. The provided insight could even extend the lifetime of turbine blades. Ultimately, this leads to a lower levelised cost of green energy.

Mission

To accelerate the energy transition by providing robotic solutions for the inspection and maintenance of green energy sources.