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The Digital, Autonomous and Robotics Engineering (Dare) Centre at the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult’s testing facility in Blyth, Northumberland, was opened today (18 May) by Graham Stuart, minister for energy security and net zero.
“As offshore wind in the UK gets ready to triple capacity over the next decade, the adoption of robotics and autonomous systems is vital to achieving this rapid expansion and reaching net zero,” a Catapult announcement said.
“These technologies play an increasingly important role in the offshore renewable energy sector, and the UK is primed to establish a world-leading supply chain linked to their future development.”
The Dare Centre includes a robotics assembly bay, an airborne robotics test zone, three dry docks with 20,000m3 capacity and test control rooms linked to the docks via a ‘live environment monitoring system’. The centre is the latest addition to the Catapult’s National Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth, which offers a range of test and validation facilities, including wind turbine testing and an offshore demonstration zone.
Companies displaying their technology solutions at the Dare Centre opening included Kinewell, Enshore Subsea, SMD, EnergyVue, BeeX, Sonardyne, Eleven-I, Innvotek, and Aspira Aerial Applications.
Stuart said: “Drones, robots and underwater vehicles can reinforce the UK’s position as the world leader in offshore wind, make us even more competitive, and keep turbines turning in even the most hazardous of conditions.
“The robotics centre will increase the safety and productivity of our highly skilled offshore wind technicians, lower costs, and contribute both to lower consumer bills and the nation’s energy security.”
Enshore Subsea, BeeX, and Aspira Aerial Applications have already signed up to test products at the new facility. Aspira is developing a specialist coating, sprayed onto a wind turbine blade by drone to remove salt build up and detritus, with the aim of improving turbine power output and minimising downtime.
Managing director Jonathan Fenning said: “The Dare Centre will be pivotal in supporting multiple stages of our Innovate UK project to develop spray application using a bespoke drone to improve the operating efficacy of wind turbine technology.
“We can provide fast, efficient and cost-effective solutions to achieve an increase in performance for the industry, but we needed to test and evidence our developments. To do this we needed to perform real world testing – something that is incredibly challenging for a drone of our size and complexity, but the centre was ideal.
“Looking to the future, our technology can be used to apply other intelligent coatings such as environmentally sensitive de-icers, or coatings to assist with fatigue/ crack inspections.”
The centre was funded through the government’s Getting Building Fund, managed in the region by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP) and Innovate UK.
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