At the beginning of this year, VALEMO officially joined the European project DURABLE, DRONES AND MAINTENANCE ROBOTS FOR THE PROMOTION OF RENEWABLE ENERGY IN THE ATLANTIC REGION which aims to exploit the robotic advances from aeronautics to apply them to the operation and maintenance of RE installations.
An exciting work carried out by the Higher School of Advanced Industrial Technologies (ESTIA) and accompanied by 11 other European partners (Fundación Andaluza para el Desarrollo Aeroespacial (FADA-CATEC), Alerion, Cluster de Energía, CTA (Corporación Tecnológica de Andalucía), Dublin City University, EDP Renewables, LORTEK, Ingeteam, Instituto Superior Técnico de Lisboa, Universidad de Sevilla, KTP UWE Bristol) and funded by Interreg Europe Atlantic Area.
The aim of the project is to develop renewable energies on the European coast by helping to optimise costs and maintenance and inspection operations by using and adapting technologies already proven in other industrial sectors, particularly aeronautics.
The project started in April 2019 for a duration of 3 years, VALEMO having joined the consortium after the project was awarded following the withdrawal of one of the partners.
VALEMO is involved in various work packages for the project, in particular for the inventory of the needs of wind farm operators and maintainers, and leads the work package in charge of the final application of the technologies developed throughout the project in real life on a wind farm. Some of the areas envisaged include flying and ground UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle UAV and Unmanned Ground Vehicle UGV), non-destructive testing, manufacturing automation, augmented reality and virtual reality tools, and innovative technologies for the repair of composite materials.
Within the framework of laboratory tests, preliminary to the experimentation of technologies on site, VALEMO provides laboratories and partner companies with samples of wind turbine blades so that they can carry out upstream tests and optimize their tools. This is an important step for optimal design and sizing of the equipment for its final use.