Drones: technical challenges, practical benefits What do turbine blades high above the ocean and the bowels of a cargo ship have in common? The inspection vital to keeping both safe and functioning can often be hazardous, the sites frequently inaccessible, and the operation always complex. So how can drones help? Digital Economy © Dmitry Kalinovsky, Shutterstock Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Insights and ideas Technicians rappelling down vast blades on the open seas, checking the parts bit by bit; engineers crawling through cramped spaces where air is poor; ships losing time in dock while cranes are used to get engineers to the top of masts: these have been the traditional ways of checking for wear and tear on wind turbines and in ships. But drones provide a new way of approaching the problem. The technology used in inspections carried out by autonomous devices, or robots, is getting evermore sophisticated. Video footage is the primary source of information, but crawlers can scrape material for sampling and test surfaces, even odours can be analysed. Once collected, all the information can be shared with leading experts wherever they are based, saving the cost and time of travelling. As our guests will tell you, scheduling repair at the next stop a ship makes saves a lot of down time, and in the case of an accident, the real-time feedback can make a real difference to safety. When it comes to wind farms, the use of fully automated drones used on a pre-programmed schedule can make wind energy more competitive and streamlined, bringing the cost of the renewable energy down. Exploring these and other issues are the CEO of BladeInsight, the company behind the Windrone Zenith project, André Croft de Moura. André is interested in robotics and data solutions applied to renewable energy generation. With his background in Marine Biology and Oceanography, his current focus is on how to streamline the structural analysis of the blades on offshore wind turbines. He is joined by Alessandro Maccari, whose background is in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. Alessandro is Research and Development director at RINA Services in Italy. Alessandro coordinated the ROBINS project and has been applying his expertise to the challenges posed by the use of autonomous vehicles in ship inspections. Happy to hear from you! If you have any feedback, we’re always happy to hear from you! Send us any comments, questions or suggestions (but hopefully never a complaint!) to the usual email address, editorial@cordis.europa.eu. Keywords CORDIScovery, CORDIS, Windrone Zenith, ROBINS, robots, drones, autonomous devices, wind turbine, blades, ship, inspection, safety
