www.servomagazine.com/index.php?/magazine/article/november2012_GeerHead
GEERHEAD
width. The climbers travel at about three inches per second,
which is not bad for a robot that won't fall off of a given
surface. The robot rides on durable foam tracks.
These climber bots have been used for both wind
turbine blade and tower inspection and repair. These bots
are also useful for inspecting bond lines between the
surface of the windmill blade and the support beam inside
the blade. Climbers have performed ultrasonic inspections
of trailing edges of wind turbine blades.
This unique robot is also useful for hot cell remote
spraying of mastic coatings using a spray boom. Climbers
have been used in nuclear containment deployments. The
ICM robots do not scratch or damage any surfaces.
ICM bots can inspect and repair in most kinds of
weather. They replace the legacy process of waiting for
several wind turbines to go down before using a crane to
inspect and repair them. Additionally, the robots offer
permanent digital mapping and recording of all
inspections and jobs. Plus, these robot climbers do not
require scaffolding and can perform tests quickly at a
reasonable cost.
Nuclear Applications
Issues with coating failures challenge the nuclear
industry; corrosion and degradation of concrete and metal
structures and the condition of the structures cannot be
verified through firsthand human means. Inspectors have to
Shots of a tethered ICM robot as it scales a windmill for
blade inspection.
either use binoculars or high magnification cameras that
record and map visual feedback.
Regulations require the nuclear power industry to verify
containment integrity, which cannot be completed by
cameras only. Nuclear containment comes with a variety of
risks and issues, such as corrosion of steel containment
shells in the drywell sand cushion region that results in wall
thickness reduction to below the minimum allowable design
thickness; corrosion of the steel containment shell;
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