Two pilot experiments on the feasibility of telerobotic inspection of offshore wind turbines

Abstract

With cyber-physical systems, it is not necessary to be physically present at a location to perform work there. Inspection of offshore wind farms is a task that would be beneficial to do remotely, due to the time and high cost required for accessing the turbines for manned inspections. Such remote inspections must be equally effective at finding errors in the turbines, since errors that aren't found can cause expensive failures. This paper describes a remote inspection robot prototype, and how it was used to compare participants' ability to identify errors using remote and manned inspections in two experiments. The results demonstrated that errors with both known and unknown symptoms were successfully identified using remote inspections, although not as effectively as manned. This is considered promising for remote inspections, and what we have learned in these experiments is used in the planning of a larger experiment, and in the development of an improved prototype.