by Robotics across the wind industry are critical to scaling up, transforming operations and maintenance and maximizing asset life.
Ten years in development, BladeBUG, the six-legged, insect-like robot equipped with inspection probes and software, is ready to go to work walking on turbine blades to send real-time data for remote interpretation.
Around 36,000 wind turbine blades spin on onshore and offshore wind farms in the UK, with thousands more on the way. The global numbers are interesting.
All blades must be kept in prime condition to ensure their integrity and longevity. A task that currently relies on deploying rope access technicians – an area where there is a critical skills shortage.
BladeBUG’s automated blade inspection and repair of wind turbines would revolutionize operations and maintenance delivered by BladeBUG for the first time in the industry.
BladeBUG’s integrated intelligent scanning technology, combined with AI-based data analysis, would allow operators to achieve greater efficiency and safely deliver accurate real-time data, while technicians could focus on other highly skilled tasks, says BladeBUG inventor and founder Chris Cieslek.
BladeBUG would also help create a more diverse workforce.
“There’s no need for a robot operator to be on site,” Chris said. “They could be in a control center a mile away and go home to their family every evening. It gives an opportunity to a much wider workforce that hasn’t been sitting on a boat for three weeks, so it changes the dynamic and the work opportunities for people.”
Inventor and founder of BladeBUG Chris Cieslek (Image: BladeBUG)
As a result of ten years of intensive research and development, BladeBUG has moved to commercial work with operator partners and continues to evolve.
The path to sales revenue and market acceptance will first focus onshore, and BladeBUG will focus primarily on how efficiently it can collect data, how quickly it costs, and then focus offshore.
The robot, which weighs around 25 kilograms and is the size of a small labrador, with suction feet that walk on a blade surface, is designed to be fast, easy to deploy and part of a technician’s tool kit.
“One bag would have adjustable casters and the other a BladeBUG robot,” Chris said. “This sector is happy with the new technology, and we will show that we can do great things. We are fortunate to have a few asset owners who want to help us in that transition phase.”
It aims for a global footprint with the opportunity to manufacture in the US to meet local material needs, as well as in Europe and Asia. BladeBUG’s first commercial work was carried out in March 2024 on offshore turbines in Spain, and in recent field trials in France, BladeBUG captured data for real-time interpretation and sent it to an expert 500 miles away.
“People ask if BladeBUG is faster than a human. It is faster but the person who can interpret the data is not the person who is willing to use their skills to hang a blade to get it. What BladeBUG can do is bring a unique skill set to the robot, which it wouldn’t have otherwise.
“What is important is the quality of this reliable and repetitive data. We’re providing a good path of feed data that can be used much more efficiently because, in theory, you can have multiple robots on multiple sites feeding one person real-time data, so it’s about efficiency, and utilization rates multiple.
“If you’re a developer, and you have 800 turbines in the UK with all different bits of equipment of different ages, having a robot and agreeing one of our operators to be part of the ‘tower team’ is a clear business case. .”
BladeBUG’s ability to address skills shortages in the sector is fantastic.
“Recruitment and retention of skilled workers are the biggest barriers to progress in the UK offshore wind sector. BladeBUG is not about removing jobs, but helping the people who are doing it by taking the rope access part out of the work of a trained technician.”
BladeBUG announced last June that it was partnering with FORCE Technology, using its custom NDT solution. The robot used NDT ultrasonic testing with an Olymous EMEA 0.5mhz probe collecting multiple data sets and an NDT expert dialed in remotely from his office 150km from the blade to verify the scans in real time.
East Anglia-based Dan Greeves recently joined the nine-strong team as chief commercial officer, bringing his proven track record of bringing wind industry innovation to market, combined with offshore engineering expertise and business development around the globe.
Dan Greeves, chief commercial officer (Image: BladeBUG)
“The probes we use to do NDT are the same probes that rope access technicians use to do NDT testing,” Dan said. “The probes are fitted to the robot so it’s exactly the same.
“Operators would not need more people as a wind farm grows. A wind farm portfolio can grow with the same number of people due to increased efficiencies by robots.
“Data can be captured for operators at the time of delivery, before the end of the warranty, during a change of ownership, or when considering a life extension.”
Using BladeBUG for proactive and predictive maintenance prevents major repairs later, delivering clear cost benefits, added Dan. In addition, putting a robot on a blade is much less expensive – and less risky – than using a rope access crew.
“Drones are used to inspect blades. We know drones give you that visual image but not what’s underneath. The proactive way to do it is to detect and repair a small repair early rather than leave it for a year and cost 10 times more, and 10 small repairs could be done for the price.
“To me, from an offshore engineer’s point of view, it doesn’t make sense.”
The onshore version of BladeBUG is ready, and its design is flexible enough to make changes as it evolves.
Chris concluded: “It’s great to use onshore to validate everything and then factor that into the offshore design.
“Drones are a good analogy for where we are now. People thought they were nonsense and not as good as the ground-based photography system. Now they are the defacto standard first point of contact.
“This is part of getting the technology and accepting the business case for the attitude to become the accepted norm.”
