One of the UK's most ambitious robotics projects has proven the concept of robotic teams combining marine, aerial and climbing assets repairing offshore windfarms. The £4.0M (US$5.5M) MIMRee project paves the way for human-robot teams at windfarms within 10 years and windfarms designed for robotic maintenance in the longer term. The project, which was funded by Innovate UK, concluded this month and reported on its drive to develop an autonomous robotic team for inspecting and repairing offshore windfarms. Two years since starting the project, the MIMRee team, including leading academics and technology developers, say they have successfully proven and demonstrated the core technologies at the heart of the concept. Under the MIMRee scenario, a Thales autonomous mothership detects defects in the blades on a wind turbine using an onboard inspection system that can scan their structure while they are still turning. The mothership then signals the blades to stop and launches a specially adapted drone that can transport a six-legged 'blade crawler' onto them to effect repair.
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