TY  - JOUR
A1  - Engemann, Heiko
A1  - Cönen, Patrick
A1  - Dawar, Harshal
A1  - Du, Shengzhi
A1  - Kallweit, Stephan
T1  - A robot-assisted large-scale inspection of wind turbine blades in manufacturing using an autonomous mobile manipulator
JF  - Applied Sciences
N2  - Wind energy represents the dominant share of renewable energies. The rotor blades of a wind turbine are typically made from composite material, which withstands high forces during rotation. The huge dimensions of the rotor blades complicate the inspection processes in manufacturing. The automation of inspection processes has a great potential to increase the overall productivity and to create a consistent reliable database for each individual rotor blade. The focus of this paper is set on the process of rotor blade inspection automation by utilizing an autonomous mobile manipulator. The main innovations include a novel path planning strategy for zone-based navigation, which enables an intuitive right-hand or left-hand driving behavior in a shared human–robot workspace. In addition, we introduce a new method for surface orthogonal motion planning in connection with large-scale structures. An overall execution strategy controls the navigation and manipulation processes of the long-running inspection task. The implemented concepts are evaluated in simulation and applied in a real-use case including the tip of a rotor blade form.
KW  - mobile manipulation
KW  - large-scale inspection
KW  - wind turbine production
KW  - autonomous navigation
KW  - surface-orthogonal path planning
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/app11199271
SN  - 2076-3417
N1  - Belongs to the Special Issue "Advances in Industrial Robotics and Intelligent Systems"
VL  - 11
IS  - 19
SP  - 1
EP  - 22
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  -