BladeBUG 6-legged repair robot takes its first walk offshore

Last month, just off the Scottish coast near Fife, BladeBUG, a six-legged inspect-and-repair robot, took its first blade walk at ORE Catapult’s 7MW Levenmouth Demonstration offshore wind turbine.

BladeBUG is said to represent cost reductions of as much as 30% on lifetime blade maintenance undertaken by rope-access technicians. ORE Catapult has forecasted that for next-generation turbines, these savings could reach up to 50%.

Maintenance costs have long been an area of particular concern for offshore companies, with faster tip speeds and sea conditions combining to create significant damage to blades over time. 

The BladeBUG robot is a £1 million (€1.12 million) collaborative project, funded in part by Innovate UK. The aim is to develop a robot capable of inspecting wind turbine blades for cracks and other damage, transmitting the data back to shore and resurfacing the blades, by the end of next year. 

This was the first time BladeBUG was tested in real-world conditions, having previously been demonstrated on the vertical training tower at ORE Catapult’s National Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth. The walk has proven the six-legged robot's ability to carry out lengthy deployments.

The demonstration saw the robot take a 50-metre walk on a vertically-positioned blade. The trial showed the BladeBUG's 'perfect' vacuum-packed feet adherence to the turbine blades in offshore conditions, as well as its ability to navigate the curves of the blade, and transmit blade scans and a video feed to the technicians onshore.  

ORE Catapult operational performance director, Chris Hill, hailed BladeBUG's technology was a 'potential game-changer'.

“I consider BladeBUG’s first walk at Levenmouth as offshore wind’s ‘moon walk’ – a historic milestone in the industry’s evolution. Robotics are here to stay, and they will be an essential ingredient to operating ever-expanding wind farms, deeper-water sites and faster, bigger turbines in the coming years,” said Hill.

BladeBUG CEO Chris Cieslak said: “In little over a year we have gone from designing and testing our first prototype, to taking our first tentative steps with our Mark I robot, to now seeing the BladeBUG robot walk along the blade of an actual offshore wind turbine. We cannot wait to perform further trials and demonstrate the capabilities further offshore.” 

BladeBUG is a key part of the £4.2 million (€4.68 million) MIMRee project, the goal of which is to develop a fully autonomous inspect-and-repair system for offshore wind farms. The robot will work together with an autonomous vessel and a team of drones, using a robotic arm to clean and resurface damaged blades. The final MIMRee tech trials are scheduled to take place in mid-2021.

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