Vestas (wind turbine manufacturer) has unveiled their latest technology for the maintenance of wind turbine blades. It is called BladeRobot. It provides automated blade-leading edge maintenance and is “four times faster” than traditional manual cleaning methods. As wind turbines age, erosion of their blades becomes a big problem due to the impact of airborne small particles, ice, snow, and rain.  This in turn affects the turbine blade’s aerodynamics due to the wear of the outer layer – resulting in a loss of energy production.

Therefore, regular wind turbine maintenance is crucial to maintaining the structural integrity of the blades and extending the life of the machine.

Artificial intelligence is used to swiftly adapt the BladeRobot to the different types of blades.  They claim this makes BladeRobot cost-effective and also provides improved safety for the blade cleaning process.  

The process begins by laying the wireless robot horizontally on the blade and then the BladeRobot completes every stage of the process in one go.  After maintenance of that blade is completed, the process can be reinitiated on the following blade, etc.