Romotioncam: Inspections in Motion

The spotlight today is on Romotioncam, a company with an inspection
method that works while blades are in motion. René Harendt, CTO at
Romotioncam, and Michael Stamm, a researcher from the Bundesanstalt
für Materialforschung und -prüfung in Germany, discuss this
groundbreaking technology. Learn about innovations at the company,
from a new 840 mm focal length camera to thermal imaging data, that
will make inspections more helpful for operators. Check out
Michael's research at BAM! https://zenodo.org/records/14170341,
https://www.bam.de/Content/EN/Projects/KI-Visir/KI-Visir.html
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Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining light on wind energy's
brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow. Allen
Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast Spotlight. I'm your
host, Allen Hall, along with my co host, Joel Saxum. Today we have
two experts pioneering innovative wind turbine inspection methods.
René Harent is the CTO of Romotioncam whose patented technology
enables high res photography of operating wind turbines. And
Michael Stamm from Germany's Federal Institute for Materials
Research and Testing, who specializes in thermographic inspection
methods for wind turbines. Together, they're combining visual and
infrared imaging to revolutionize how we detect early stage blade
issues. Rene and Michael, welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast
Spotlight. Thank you. We have seen Romotioncam a number of times,
and the technology is really good, Rene. I like it because the
turbine continues to operate. As you take high quality images, the
technology has evolved quite a bit from the last time I have seen
it. Do you want to explain where you're at with Romotioncam today?
So René Harendt: at the moment, we actually build up a fleet to
scale up and to provide it to a bigger market. And yeah, I actually
have a new prototype with A bigger focal length. So the actual
system has a 500 millimeter focal length. The new system has an 840
millimeter, millimeter focal length. So that means that we can,
even on higher turbines and bigger blades, because this is related
to our distance to the turbines, we can provide GSDs like 0. 06
centimeter per pixel. So something up to 0. pixel. Allen Hall: So
in that kind of imaging resolution, you can detect all kinds of
blade abnormalities. René Harendt: Yes, even little hair cracks and
stuff like this. Joel Saxum: Yeah, because you're approaching what
a drone can do, right? That's, even a couple of years ago, two
millimeters per pixel, three millimeters per pixel is normal. But
now that one millimeter per pixel, a lot of times you'll see that
in an RFP, right? When someone puts out, Hey, we're, we want
inspections and they put it out to the market. One millimeter per
pixel will be the standard, but you guys are offering this without
actually having to stop the turbine. So your value add goes through
the roof because you're keeping that production going. René
Harendt: That's true. And if you think about it with that,
sometimes we add a distance of 160 meters, something like this and
provide that kind of GSD. Yeah, this. Sometimes there are. That's
amazing, yeah. Allen Hall: So maybe, René, for those uninitiated,
who are not familiar with Romotioncam, what are the fundamentals
here? How does this system work? René Harendt: The easiest way is
to go to our website and watch the video. I think this can explain.
Everything. So go to romotioncam com and watch it here. But I'll
try to explain it a little bit. So the key thing is that we're
using one camera to track the whole rotor and the blades and a
special tracking technology behind it, which is also patented. Can
detect the wingtips and can calculate the rotation speed and the
position of the turbine and stuff like this. And then calculators
and the kind of movement data for a pan tilt head. And we have the
camera integrated into a pan tilt head that can follow the blade
all the time. So that means even on high tip speeds, we can follow
the Tip. It's two fast cars driving next to each other. You
literally can shake hands. And this is, this allows us for the
camera to use low shutter speeds. And yeah, we can deal also with
low light condition because we don't have to put the ISO too high
and stuff like this. It's also weak. We Yeah, I can eliminate some
photographic issues you would normally have if you're trying to
freeze some motions. Yeah. Allen Hall: Now, the majority of the
work you do is in Europe, but you were in the United States for a
short while. Can you explain what kind of work you're doing René
Harendt: in Europe at the minute? So we are subcontractors, so we
have a frame contact with RWE, so we're running out some
inspections and, but we want to open the market a little bit more.
There is a plan for next year to open up an entity in the U. S. To
be honest, at the moment, it's now a political situation. So we
have to take a look what happened. And if it's, it's not that easy
for us yet to come over to the U. S. It's not that we just saying,
okay, we want to open an entity. There's a lot of paperwork. We try
to clarify now, but at the moment, the political situation is a
little bit. Yeah, we don't really know. I think we have to wait. It
could be more complicated, maybe more easier. Let's see what
happens. Yeah, but the goal is to come to the US and open an entity
there Allen Hall: as René Harendt: well. Allen Hall: And the latest
technology, and we talked several weeks ago now, that Romotioncam
has been involved with, is on the thermal imaging side. And the
first time I heard about this was a probably a year ago when we
were in Amsterdam at one of the blade conferences and I was just
blown away. You can take thermal imaging from a Romotioncam cam on
the ground. That's amazing. One. That's amazing. And then it was
described what that camera and that technology could do. And this
is where Michael comes in. Where Michael is our thermal imaging
expert. And Michael, can you describe where you work at? Just to
make sure I get the right label on it. Michael Stamm: Yeah. Hi, I'm
Michael. I work at a research institute. So I'm definitely on the
research side of this technology. And We are performing thermal
imaging of operating wind turbines from the ground. And this is
actually also where we met with Romotioncam, because it's really
important to, for a proper interpretation of our thermal images, we
really needed high resolution visual images. And then we were just
looking for somebody providing this simultaneously from the same
point we were looking at. And then that was like the match with the
RamoshiCAM. And now we just had a big measurement campaign where we
tried to benchmark what is possible, where are we? We are working
on this, like BAM is working on this since, Something like seven
years. And I know even when I have discussions with experts from
the field, I know that even 15 years ago, people were already
talking about thermal expression of rotor blades. So it's like not,
really inherently new. I just say like things develop, cameras
develop, understanding develops, simulation develop. So we are, we
are trying to get it where it's really useful for the industry.
Joel Saxum: Traditionally, we know in the wind turbine world,
visual inspections via drone romotioncam as you guys are doing,
it's fantastic. Pairing that with Thermal. What exactly can you
guys see? Are you trying to image and what, like what value are you
trying to bring to the inspections? Michael Stamm: I want to
distinguish two physical phenomena, and I think it's really
important to get this once clarified and then we can go to the. But
there are different physical phenomenons that give you a thermal
signature on your blade. And you have to distinguish these
signatures. And one of the signatures is flow, air flow. Turbulent
flow has a higher heat exchange between air and blade than laminar
flow. So you see the difference between laminar and turbulent flow,
which for example, Helps you to characterize leading edge defects,
which result in turbulent flow patterns. That's the first point.
And the second point is completely independent of the flow. It's
really like the inner structure of the blade. It's like just a
different thing to look into the things. The sun is rising, you see
the entire blade gets warm, and wherever there is, for example,
foam, balsa, air, it gets warmer faster. Why? Because you just
don't have that high heat capacity. Having a big part of CFRP of a
few centimeters, it takes time to heat this up. And then, this
honeycomb structure is warm already. And that's like the second
physical phenomena. So you really have to distinguish. And then,
definitely, You look for the application in this case, for example,
with romotioncam we were really looking for this flow
visualization. Joel Saxum: And you're also can look for, and I
think this is an important one, friction creates heat and, or a
lack of friction can create a colder spot. And so it's more like
you're looking on the blade. You're not looking for a specific
temperature, right? We're not looking for, I want to see the spot.
That's, 21. 2 degrees Celsius. I want to see the spots that are.
21. 2 and 21.