Gecko Robotics has developed ultrasonic maintenance robots that can stick to any equipment or surface and scan it for signs of degradation
It is necessary to carry out regular inspections and maintenance of infrastructure to ensure they are free from structural damage. Since a manual inspection is not accurate, Gecko Robotics has developed ultrasonic robots that could assist in inspection services. These remote-controlled robots are configured with ultrasonic transducers, localization sensors, lasers, and HD cameras. Siemens has announced a three-year collaboration with Gecko Robotics for ultrasonic robotic inspection services across Europe.
“Over the past year, we’ve worked closely with experts from Siemens Energy to understand the value and impact that the collaboration of our companies can create for the European energy market,” said Ryan Herman, Gecko’s managing director for Europe. “By coming together…we can unlock new data insights and help achieve reliability and efficiency not previously possible.”
The spider-like robots adhere to the surface of different equipment types and move horizontally or vertically across the equipment. It efficiently scans the whole equipment looking out for any signs of wear and tear, which enables managers to monitor corrosion trends over time and predict necessary maintenance. Trial inspections of these robots have already been completed in Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the UK, with successful results reported.
“With one of the industry’s largest installed fleets of rotating equipment, Siemens Energy will provide unparalleled customer access to bring proven robotics technology to its wide customer base,” said Herman Smit, Siemens’ manager of robotic inspections. “The robotic inspection system will not only ensure safe and reliable operations of customer assets but also provide rich multi-modal data to make condition-based maintenance of static equipment much more feasible.”
