AIRTuB Resident Offshore Monitoring & Inspection
Publieke samenvatting / Public summary
Aanleiding
The wind industry has accelerated the construction of offshore wind farms in recent years and as a result, wind turbine Operations & Maintenance (O&M) is a rapidly growing activity. However, O&M as performed today is still suboptimal and requires significant efforts of technicians under difficult and dangerous offshore conditions. ? One significant hurdle in today's O&M offshore wind farms is a lack of knowledge of the condition that blades and blade systems are in. Better monitoring and inspection methods will lead to better asset management: better understanding of the blade's health would improve the efficiency of repair activities, reduce costs and increase the performance and lifetime of the blades. ? A second hurdle is the challenging offshore inspection/maintenance work and the expected future shortage of offshore wind energy technicians, which is likely to increase the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). Currently 'unmanned' robotized inspection technology, such as a drone/crawler robot that 'resides' in the windfarm, are not at a sufficient technical level to address this problem and to reduce response times, the costs of logistics and downtime.
Doelstelling
In this project, automated systems will be developed that monitor and inspect blades of offshore wind farms. The project aims to build upon technologies that have been developed in the AIRTuB 1 project such as ultrasonic sensing and drone/crawler platforms. In this project these are improved and integrated into a system that will be resident in offshore wind farms. The ambition of the project is to improve, test and demonstrate the technologies developed in the field (offshore) and to engage service providers for AIRTuB as a Service ('AAAS').
Korte omschrijving
This project focuses on making offshore wind turbine blade monitoring and inspections automated, and thereby continuous, cheaper, safer and faster, thus leading to better asset management.
Resultaat
The result of the project will be “AIRTuB as a service - AAAS”, which incorporates: 1. Sensor-in-blade monitoring solutions which are developed and installed to detect real-time events and damages and track blade conditions and can provide the drone-crawler platform with information on which part of the blade to inspect with priority. Major damages are captured prior to failure. 2. A drone- and crawler inspection platform which is developed including sensors that has a maximum take-off mass (MTOM) of less than 25 kg and is equipped with a base station to be installed on turbines in offshore wind farms. 3. Data communication that is required to operate the drone in the wind farm and the communication with the turbine operator. 4. The information of the inspections which is assessed using digital twin technology to obtain the severity of the damage – is repair urgently required?
The wind industry has accelerated the construction of offshore wind farms in recent years and as a result, wind turbine Operations & Maintenance (O&M) is a rapidly growing activity. However, O&M as performed today is still suboptimal and requires significant efforts of technicians under difficult and dangerous offshore conditions. ? One significant hurdle in today's O&M offshore wind farms is a lack of knowledge of the condition that blades and blade systems are in. Better monitoring and inspection methods will lead to better asset management: better understanding of the blade's health would improve the efficiency of repair activities, reduce costs and increase the performance and lifetime of the blades. ? A second hurdle is the challenging offshore inspection/maintenance work and the expected future shortage of offshore wind energy technicians, which is likely to increase the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). Currently 'unmanned' robotized inspection technology, such as a drone/crawler robot that 'resides' in the windfarm, are not at a sufficient technical level to address this problem and to reduce response times, the costs of logistics and downtime.
Doelstelling
In this project, automated systems will be developed that monitor and inspect blades of offshore wind farms. The project aims to build upon technologies that have been developed in the AIRTuB 1 project such as ultrasonic sensing and drone/crawler platforms. In this project these are improved and integrated into a system that will be resident in offshore wind farms. The ambition of the project is to improve, test and demonstrate the technologies developed in the field (offshore) and to engage service providers for AIRTuB as a Service ('AAAS').
Korte omschrijving
This project focuses on making offshore wind turbine blade monitoring and inspections automated, and thereby continuous, cheaper, safer and faster, thus leading to better asset management.
Resultaat
The result of the project will be “AIRTuB as a service - AAAS”, which incorporates: 1. Sensor-in-blade monitoring solutions which are developed and installed to detect real-time events and damages and track blade conditions and can provide the drone-crawler platform with information on which part of the blade to inspect with priority. Major damages are captured prior to failure. 2. A drone- and crawler inspection platform which is developed including sensors that has a maximum take-off mass (MTOM) of less than 25 kg and is equipped with a base station to be installed on turbines in offshore wind farms. 3. Data communication that is required to operate the drone in the wind farm and the communication with the turbine operator. 4. The information of the inspections which is assessed using digital twin technology to obtain the severity of the damage – is repair urgently required?