MIMRee

The Multi-Platform Inspection Maintenance and Repair in Extreme Environments 

The Multi-Platform Inspection Maintenance and Repair in Extreme Environments (MIMRee) project team is developing a fully autonomous intelligent robotic platform to plan and execute inspection and repair missions without the need for an offshore human presence. With a team of robots to do the manual work in extreme environments, cost and health and safety risks can be significantly reduced.

The robotic platform being developed is comprised of the following systems:

Onshore Central Operation

• An onshore central operation which provides human operators with information, such as system status, gathered inspection data and interface for issuing automatically generated mission plans.

Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Robot

• An IMR robot including a hexpod robot, NDT inspection instruments and a repair arm are used to carry out inspection and repair missions on the surface of a wind turbine blade
  

Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)

• A UAS including a drone and a mechatronic interface for deploying and recovering the IMR robot on and from the surface of a wind turbine blade

Autonomous Surface Vessel (ASV)

• An autonomous surface vessel (ASV) which enables autonomous transportation, charging and deployment of the UAS and IMR robot.

The University of Manchester is working closely with other project partners on the development of the mechatronic interface for deploying and recovering the IMR robot. The major challenges are safely deploying the IMR robot in a dynamic and gusty environment without causing damage to the turbine blade, locating the IMR robot during recovery mission, securely attaching the IMR robot and minimising the impact on flight dynamics. The latest concept consists of three sub-systems including a landing gear with suction feet for secure landing on the wind turbine blade, a hook-pickup system for attaching and detaching the IMR robot and a winch system with a locking mechanism for adjust the vertical position of the hook.

MIMRee concept of The MIMRee scenario animation.