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Maintaining wind turbines at dizzying heights is risky, costly, and involves long downtimes. Robots could be an alternative. A joint project involving the University of Würzburg is working on this.
In 2023, wind turbines supplied around one third of the electricity generated in Germany. Their maintenance is very complex: the rotor blades are subject to high loads during operation. Much of the critical damage often occurs inside the blades before it can be seen on the outside. This means that inspectors have to enter the interior of the blades to examine the material for cracks and other damage.
Such inspections at heights of up to 240 meters involve safety risks, high costs, and long downtimes. The joint project InInspekt aims to remedy this situation. The Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR) is funding it with more than 1.1 million euros.
The consortium's proposed solution: robots should perform the inspection autonomously. By combining robotics, multisensory data acquisition, and AI-based analysis, the project contributes to increasing the service life of wind turbines, reducing maintenance costs and downtime, and improving operational and occupational safety. This also reduces the cost of electricity from wind energy.
The technical expertise for sensor technology is provided by the Chair of Robotics headed by Professor Andreas Nüchter at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU).
Extending the service life of wind turbines
“Together with EduArt Robotik, we are developing, among other things, a unit that enables the mounted measuring system to be swiveled and tilted on the moving robot,” says Jost Wittmann, researcher at the chair. The researchers want to connect the control unit of the swiveling body to the robot's navigation system. This will enable the required measuring distance to be set precisely.
Speaking of measurements, these are to be carried out using a 3D laser scanner. “Our team is responsible for the design and construction of the system, which works on the principle of stereo photogrammetry,” explains Wittmann. A projector casts a pattern onto the inside of the rotor blade to mark the area, which is then captured by two measuring cameras. A color camera and a thermal imaging camera are used to transfer the image data to the point cloud during data post-processing.
“This creates a 3D point cloud for an area of one square meter, which reproduces the segment in detail and makes damage visible,” says the project team member. This enables the robots to measure the locations with millimeter precision.
“The joint project and the resulting robot will help to extend the service life of wind turbine rotor blades and reduce maintenance costs,” says Professor Andreas Nüchter. In addition, the method is to be introduced as a new testing standard.
About the joint project
The InInspekt joint project was launched on December 1, 2025, and will run for two years. The JMU team has over 350,000 euros at its disposal from the BMFTR funding. EduArt Robotik is coordinating the project. Other partners include the start-up LATODA / Adoxin UG and the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM).
EduArt Robotik, based in Neunkirchen am Sand in Middle Franconia, is developing the mobile robot platform. The project coordinator and project manager is company founder Markus Fenn.
The German start-up LATODA / Adoxin UG specializes in the digital intelligence of the system. It will implement AI models for automated damage detection. The company is also responsible for processing the fusion of complex sensor data in real time to enable live evaluation.
BAM focuses on analyzing data from thermal imaging cameras. The federal institute has scientific expertise in the field of non-destructive testing, i.e., methods for quality control of components without damaging their structure.
Prof. Dr. Andreas Nüchter, Chair of Robotics, T +49-931 31-88790, andreas.nuechter@uni-wuerzburg.de
Jost Wittmann, Chair of Robotics, T +49-931 31-87144, jost.wittmann@uni-wuerzburg.de
https://www.eduart-robotik.com/ EduArt Robotik website
https://www.latoda.de/ LATODA website
https://www.bam.de/ BAM website
This is what the mobile platform developed by EduArt Robotik could look like in use.
Quelle: Markus Fenn
Copyright: EduArt Robotik
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