46 n CLEAN ENERGY July/August 2024 www.drivesncontrols.com Robots lend a hand to create wind turbines... US researchers have used a robot to help produce wind turbine blades, eliminating di cult working conditions for humans, and potentially improving manufacturing consistency. Although robots have been used previously to paint and polish blades, automation has not been adopted widely in blade production. The researchers, at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), have used a robot to trim, grind, and sand blades. These steps occur after the two halves of a blade are made in a mould and then bonded together. The post-moulding operations require workers to perch on scaolding and wear protective suits, including respiratory gear. Automation should improve employee safety and well-being, as well as helping blade manufacturers to retain skilled labour. The research project was undertaken at the Composites Manufacturing Education and Technology (CoMET) facility at NREL’s Flatirons Campus. The robot worked on a 5m-long blade segment. Real-life wind turbine blades are much longer, but because they bend and deect under their own weight, a robot would need to be programmed to work on longer blades section by section. The researchers used a series of scans to create a 3D representation of the position of the blade and to identify the front and rear sections of the aerofoil shape that helps air to ow smoothly over the blade. The team programmed the robot to perform a series of tasks, after which it was judged on its accuracy and speed. The researchers found areas for improvement, particularly when it came to grinding. The robot ground down too much in some parts of the blade, and not enough in others. The robot was not compared to how a human would perform the same functions. “I would consider it a success,” says NREL robotics engineer, Hunter Huth, who is the lead author of a report detailing the work. “Not everything operated as well as we wanted it to, but we learned all the lessons we think we need to make it meet or exceed our expectations. “The motive of this research was to develop automation methods that could be used to make domestically manufactured blades costcompetitive globally,”he adds. “Currently oshore blades are not produced in the US due to their high labour costs. The nishing process is very labour-intensive and has a high job turnover rate due to the harsh nature of the work. By automating the nishing process, domestic oshore blade manufacturing can become more economically viable.” “As we've gone through this research, we’ve been moving the goal posts for what this system needs to do to be eective,”Huth reports. He says an automated system could provide consistency in blade manufacturing that is not possible when humans are doing the work. He also points out that robots can use tougher, more aggressive abrasives than humans would tolerate. “This work is critical to enable signicant US-based blade manufacturing for the domestic wind turbine market,” comments Daniel Laird, director of the NREL’s National Wind Technology Centre. “Though it may not be obvious, automating some of the labour in blade manufacture can lead to more US jobs because it improves the economics of domestic blades versus imported blades.” The US Department of Energy’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies O ce funded the research. n US researchers have demonstrated how robots could help to produce wind turbine blades, reducing the need for skilled labour and avoiding health and safety risks to human workers. NREL researcher Hunter Huth with a robot designed to automate part of the blade manufacturing process. Photo: Werner Slocum, NREL
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