풍력발전기 유지보수로봇을 위한 표면 적응 이동 시스템

Abstract

As energy shortage is getting more serious, wind energy source is more promoted around the world. Blade is a key component of wind turbine. Local breakages and/or contamination in the blade bring degradation in aerodynamic efficiency and life-time. However, it is not easy and even dangerous for human workers to access the blade for inspection and maintenance since its size is huge and located at high mountains and rough sea, which are windy places. This paper deals with a novel moving mechanism that efficiently carries human workers or robots to the wind turbine blade. The proposed mechanism utilizes flexible tube with pressurized air that rolls and climbs over the blade surface. So, the tube naturally adapts the changing surface of the blade and acts no harm to it. This paper discusses about its concept, detail design, and advantages. The feasibility of the proposed mechanism is proved through experiments prototype.