Wind turbines harness the wind to produce energy, however, they can be quite dangerous to maintain. Offshore engineers are subjected to dangerous conditions which include hazardous weather conditions and environments. Robotic platforms which include robots for air, land and sea, can be used to complete inspection and maintenance missions to reduce the risk and increase […]
Author: Daniel Mitchell
Autonomous aerial-based visual monitoring of energy assets under constrained environments- PhD
The Smart Systems Group are pleased to be supporting a PhD opportunity in Malaysia. Lead by Heriot-Watt University Malaysia by our academic colleague Dr John See, this PhD will explore Autonomous aerial-based visual monitoring of energy assets under constrained environments. This PhD represents an excellent opportunity to conduct research in a creative and multidisciplinary environment, interacting […]
Dispatch – Ministerial Mention for New Edinburgh Research Partnership Project
Minister for Climate Change Lord Callanan said: “The way we use energy in our buildings makes up almost a third of all UK carbon emissions. Reducing that to virtually zero is going to be key to eradicating our contribution to climate change by 2050. That’s why it’s important that innovative projects like DISPATCH in Edinburgh receive […]
Asset Integrity Dashboard Version 2 & Machine Learning
As Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) take more responsibility for Operations and Maintenance (O&M), the data collected must be displayed in a manner which is easily understandable and intuitive for remote human operators. As we progress the Asset Integrity Dashboard (AID) tool, the Smart Systems Group have the potential to use the AID to collect […]
How Robots Could Limit the Environmental Impact of Offshore Windfarms
Author: Prof. David Flynn Spending on global offshore renewable energy infrastructure over the next ten years is expected to reach over US$16 billion (£11.3bn). This involves creating an extra 2.5 million kilometres of global submarine cables by 2030. To lay and secure these cables against ocean currents involves ploughing the seabed and dumping rocks and concrete “mattresses” to serve […]
New Publication: VPR-Bench: An Open-Source Visual Place Recognition Evaluation Framework with Quantifiable Viewpoint and Appearance Change
An international and multidisciplinary research collaboration between Heriot-Watt University, Queensland University of Technology, Delft University of Technology and the University of Essex, has led to a publication on an open source framework for assessing the performance of VPR techniques. Visual place recognition (VPR) is the process of recognising a previously visited place using visual information, […]
Internet of Things: A Review on Theory Based Impedance Matching Techniques for Energy Efficient RF Systems
Within an increasingly connected world, the exponential growth in the deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) applications presents a significant challenge in power and data transfer optimisation. Currently, the maximization of Radio Frequency (RF) system power gain depends on the design of efficient, commercial chips, and on the integration of these chips by using complex […]
Symbiotic System Design for Safe and Resilient Autonomous Robotics in Offshore Wind Farms
We are pleased to announce an early release of our research into symbiotic systems. This top-down approach to modelling the complex interactions of industrial autonomous services presents several advancements that will enable a roadmap to trust, resilient autonomous operations and safety compliance. The preprint is available on ArXiv by clicking here and video presentation which […]
Asset Integrity Monitoring of Wind Turbine Blades with Non-Destructive Radar Sensing -Available on IEEE Xplore Open Access
Global growth in onshore and offshore wind energy has created a forecasted 11.5% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) increase in Wind Turbine (WT) blades throughout 2020-2025. The ability to verify blade condition throughout the asset lifecycle is integral to economic and reliable renewable energy supplies. Currently, commercial inspection of deployed wind turbine blades is predominately […]
An Evaluation of Millimetre-wave Radar Sensing for Civil Infrastructure – Available on IEEE Xplore Open Access
Critical infrastructure is a dense network of systems that provide vital services such as energy, transport and water. Continuous cycles of monitoring and repair are vital to the economic development and functions of a community. Current detection methods of subsurface fault precursors in civil infrastructure are insufficient for subsurface defect detection. In this paper, “An […]