NREL Invites Robots To Help Make Wind Turbine Blades
May 02 2024 - 1:03PM
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable
Energy Laboratory (NREL) have successfully leveraged robotic
assistance in the manufacture of wind turbine blades, allowing for
the elimination of difficult working conditions for humans and the
potential to improve the consistency of the product.
Although robots have been used by the wind energy industry to
paint and polish blades, automation has not been widely adopted.
Research at the laboratory demonstrates the ability of a robot to
trim, grind, and sand blades. Those necessary steps occur after the
two sides of the blade are made using a mold and then bonded
together.
“I would consider it a success,” said Hunter Huth, a robotics
engineer at NREL and lead author of a newly published paper
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 paper, “Toolpath Generation for Automated Wind Turbine Blade
Finishing Operations,” appears in the journal Wind Energy. The
coauthors, all from NREL, are Casey Nichols, Scott Lambert, Petr
Sindler, Derek Berry, David Barnes, Ryan Beach, and David
Snowberg.
The post-molding operations to manufacture wind turbine blades
require workers to perch on scaffolding and wear protective suits
including respiratory gear. Automation, the researchers noted, will
boost employee safety and well-being and help manufacturers retain
skilled labor.
“This work is critical to enable significant U.S.-based blade
manufacturing for the domestic wind turbine market,” said Daniel
Laird, director of the National Wind Technology Center at NREL.
“Though it may not be obvious, automating some of the labor in
blade manufacture can lead to more U.S. jobs because it improves
the economics of domestic blades versus imported blades.”
“The motive of this research was to develop automation methods
that could be used to make domestically manufactured blades cost
competitive globally,” Huth said. “Currently offshore blades are
not produced in the U.S. due to high labor rates. The finishing
process is very labor intensive and has a high job-turnover rate
due to the harsh nature of the work. By automating the finishing
process, domestic offshore blade manufacturing can become more
economically viable.”
The research was conducted at the Composites Manufacturing
Education and Technology (CoMET) facility at NREL’s Flatirons
Campus. The robot worked on a 5-meter-long blade segment. Wind
turbine blades are considerably longer, but because they bend and
deflect under their own weight, a robot would have to be programmed
to work on the bigger 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
precisely the front and rear sections of the airfoil—a special
shape of the blade that helps the air flow smoothly over the blade.
From there, the team programmed the robot to perform a series of
tasks, after which it was judged on 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.
“As we've gone through this research, we've been moving the goal
posts for what this system needs to do to be effective,” Huth
said.
The robot was not compared to how a human would perform the same
functions.
Huth said an automated system would provide consistency in blade
manufacturing that is not possible when humans are doing all the
work. He also said a robot would be able to use “tougher, more
aggressive abrasives” than a human could tolerate.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Materials and
Manufacturing Technologies Office funded the research.
NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national
laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and
development. NREL is operated for DOE by the Alliance for
Sustainable Energy LLC.
- NREL Invites Robots To Help Make Wind Turbine Blades
Wayne Hicks
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
303-275-4051
Wayne.Hicks@nrel.gov