Thrust-vectoring Drone Delivery and Remote Operation of a Wind Turbine Blade Autonomous Repair Manipulator (VECTARM)

风力涡轮机叶片自主维修机械手 (VECTARM) 的推力矢量无人机交付和远程操作

• 批准号: 10045215
• 金额: $ 6.37万
• 依托单位: MISSION AUTONOMY LTD
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Grant for R&D
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10045215
• 关键词: Thrust; vectoring; Drone; Delivery; Remote

The project demonstrates a novel robotic system for the autonomous maintenance and repair of wind turbine blades. It involves the integration of an autonomous, patent-pending blade repair manipulator arm, with a thrust-vectoring flying drone platform to form the VECTARM system. The system is designed to be launched in the vicinity of the wind turbine - from a boat in the case of offshore wind turbines. It then flies and anchors itself to the blades where it performs the maintenance and repair operations, before flying back to its launch base. The project culminates with a demonstration flight on a vertically-hung wind turbine blade where the system then deploys its autonomous arm and performs repair functions.There is a strong and growing market demand for such a system. Repair and maintenance operations are currently performed by rope-access technicians, which is costly in terms of deployment and turbine downtime, and carries very significant health and safety risks. These operations are forecast to represent a £ 1.1 billion market in the UK alone by 2026, and USD 19.4 billion globally.The VECTARM system is a much lower cost IMR solution that removes humans from these extreme work environments and minimises the turbine downtime, all in a single, integrated system that avoids multiple interoperating robotic platforms (flying and payload deployment, crawling, robotic repair system), reducing the chances of coordination failure among the various platforms.The project enables the commercialisation of the technology, which will contribute to improving the overall generation ef?ciency of offshore wind, helping reduce the cost of wind energy whilst securing this expertise for the UK.

该项目展示了一种新型的机器人系统，用于自主维护和维修风力涡轮机叶片。它涉及将自主，申请专利的刀片修复机器组的集成，并具有巨型载体的飞行无人机平台以形成矢量系统。该系统旨在在风力涡轮机附近发射 - 在海上风力涡轮机的情况下。然后，它会飞向执行维护和维修操作的刀片，然后飞回其发射基地。该项目在垂直悬挂的风力涡轮机刀片上以示范飞行的形式达到高潮，然后该系统部署其自主臂并执行维修功能。对这种系统的市场需求有强劲而不断增长的。绳索访问技术人员目前进行了维修和维护操作，在部署和涡轮停机时间方面的成本高昂，并且具有非常明显的健康和安全风险。 These operations are forecast to represent a £ 1.1 billion market in the UK alone by 2026, and USD 19.4 billion globally.The VECTARM system is a much lower cost IMR solution that removes humans from these extreme work environments and minimums the turbine downtime, all in a single, integrated system that avoids multiple interoperating robotic platforms (flying and payload deployment, crawling, robotic repair system), reducing the chances of该项目使该技术的商业化能够提高海上风能的整体效率，从而有助于降低风能的成本，同时确保英国的专业知识，从而有助于提高该技术的商业化。