BladeBUG Leading Edge Repair Tool

在过去的十年里，英国海上风力涡轮机的数量翻了一番，达到2000多台现役涡轮机，每年减少2900万吨二氧化碳，总发电量为10.4千兆瓦。英国的目标是到2030年将这一数字提高到40千兆瓦。随着电力需求的增加，涡轮机的尺寸和离海岸的距离也在增加，从而导致更高的风险和维护成本。目前的风力涡轮机可能有超过80米长的叶片，甚至更大的风力涡轮机正在开发中。风力涡轮机面临的主要问题之一是叶片前缘的侵蚀，这是由于叶片尖端的高速。随着风力涡轮机变得更大，叶片尖端的速度会增加，从而加剧侵蚀。使用索道设备的技术人员被派去修复因此而造成的损坏边缘，方法是打磨和涂抹前沿保护材料。然而，离海岸更远的危险环境和更大的涡轮机将给这些技术人员带来更大的风险。这还将导致更长的涡轮机停机时间和更昂贵的维修成本，从而减少绿色能源的产生。像BladeBUG这样的机器人维修解决方案可以通过将人类从这个危险的环境中移除来提高安全性。此外，机器人和自动化的使用可以降低早期维修的成本，并且可以在损坏影响性能之前通过先发制人的维护来提高生产率。这也减少了涡轮机停机时间，因为需要的大规模维修更少。可重复、精确的机器人动作也将提高维修效率。该项目旨在开发一种模块化的工具托架和工具，用于打磨涡轮叶片的前缘，使之前开发的BladeBUG机器人能够执行尖端修复程序。由于生产率和效率的提高，单个涡轮机在其整个生命周期中将产生更多的能源，减少英国对化石燃料作为能源的依赖。随着英国风电行业的计划增长，这将在未来产生更大的影响。

In the last decade, the number of offshore wind turbines in the UK has doubled to over 2,000 active turbines, saving 29 megatonnes of CO2 every year, and producing 10.4GW of power combined. The UK is aiming to raise this to 40GW by 2030\. As power requirements increase, so does the size of turbines and their distance from shore resulting in higher risk and cost of maintenance. Current wind turbines may have blades over 80 m long, and even larger wind turbines are in development.One of the primary issues that wind turbines face is erosion of the leading edge of the blade, due to high speeds at the tip of the blade. As wind turbines get larger, the blade tip speed increases, escalating erosion. Technicians using rope-access equipment are sent out to repair the damaged edges caused by this, by sanding and applying leading edge protection materials. However, more hazardous environments further from shore and on larger turbines will lead to greater risks to these technicians. This will also result in longer turbine downtime, and more costly repairs, reducing green energy production.Robotic repair solutions such as BladeBUG can improve safety by removing humans from this hazardous environment. In addition, use of robots and automation can reduce the cost of earlier stage repairs and productivity can be increased via preemptive maintenance before damage impacts performance. This also reduces turbine downtime, as fewer large scale repairs are needed. Repeatable, precise robotic actions will also improve repair efficiency. This project aims to develop a modular tool carrier and tool for sanding the leading edge of turbine blades, enabling the previously developed BladeBUG robot to carry out leading edge repair procedures.As a result of productivity and efficiency improvements, individual turbines will produce more energy throughout their lifetime, reducing the UK's reliance on fossil fuels as a source of energy. With the planned growth of the UK's wind sector, this will have an even greater effect in the future.