Robot ranchers will ride herd on wind farms in future

The Earth Times reports:

Robot ranchers will tend the windswept ranges of sprawling wind farms in the future, according to a team of German robotic scientists. Wind turbine generators already dot the horizon for miles in any direction in many parts of the world. Tending the mighty windmills has been an arduous task for human technicians. Rotor blade damage is a routine, but annoying problem which entails many man-hours of maintenance. But now, scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation (IFF) in Germany say they are perfecting a generation of robots which will be able to monitor and maintain wind turbine generators on a round-the-clock basis. Their latest helper is RIWEA, a robot that inspects the rotor blades of wind energy converters. Primarily made of glass fibre reinforced plastics, rotor blades have to withstand a great deal: wind, inertial forces, erosion, etc. Until now, humans have inspected wind energy converters at regular intervals - not an easy job. After all, the technicians must closely examine large surfaces - a rotor blade can be up to 60 meters in length - in airy heights...