Getting to the top of a wind turbine is no small feat — consanguineous to summit the Washington Monument — and even more difficult when the steer farm is at ocean . So rather than force human inspectors to make the touch-and-go acclivity , Helical Robotics has developed a magnetic turtleneck to do it for us .
Officially the HR - MP20 , this individual - handler robot measure 23 - in L x 25 - in W x 13 - in T , weigh 42 pounds , and is design to scale the outside of a turbine mast and trapping for reach and inspect the source ’s fan blades . These blades find a large amount of wear through thermal and forcible stresses and ask regular inspection .
Typically , you ’d just send a technician to climb the hundreds of feet of stairs and ladders inside the mast to do so but that ’s an expensive and a time - consuming selection . Instead , the 60 minutes - MP20 sticks to the mast ’s metallic element outside with five neodymium magnets and drives up the erect pillar at 65 ft feet a minute using 6 Ni - MH bombardment . The wheeler dealer control this ascending from the ground , up to 2500 meters below , via an RF accountant . The front last of the robot ( the end without the orange arduous - cause of antennas and motors ) houses the sensory gimmick , which can admit up to 20 pounds of standard video equipment or specialty review devices like sonograms .
The HR - MP20 retail for $ 20,000 and enters a field already brimming with biologically inspired designs — likethe serpent - bot , the roach - bot , and theumbilically - impound storage tank - bot .
https://gizmodo.com/we-need-to-stop-developing-these-creepy-pole-climbing-r-5926017
[ Helical – Inhabitat – Treehugger ]
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