Installation capacity of wind turbine in Taiwan is projected to reach 6.8 GW (1.2 GW on land and 5.6 GW offshore) by 2025. The design lifetimes of land-based and offshore wind turbines are 20 and 25 years respectively. Thus, for lifetime extension, wind turbines must have sufficient remaining structural life after their design lifetime. Therefore, the inspection of blade structural health is an essential item of wind farm operation and maintenance. NARI(National Atomic Research Institute) establishes ultrasonic wind turbine blade inspection system with intelligent vehicle and assist domestic wind farm operators to introduce blade inspection so as to raise wind turbine availability and wind farm efficiency.
NARI develops ultrasonic wind turbine blade inspection system with intelligent vehicle in order to raise the efficiency of damage detection and establish blade damage automatic identification technique. This system integrating a six-axis robot arm through the self-designed integrated mechanism can automatically move on outdoor ground and take the inspection probe to scan and measure within a certain range.