Aerones, a company that builds robots to automate and scale wind-turbine inspection and maintenance, raised a $9 million seed round to scale production, expand services, and meet fast-growing demand.
With its suite of proprietary robots, Aerones inspects and maintains turbines up to six times faster and up to 40 percent more cost efficiently than humans.
Aerones’ core technology is a patented computerized winch system that controls a high-precision robotic arm. The company provides services such as leading-edge repair, detailed external inspections, data analysis, lightning protection system tests, NDT ultrasound inspections, drainage hole cleaning as well as blade cleaning, de-icing, and coating applications — all of which can be controlled remotely.
As opposed to conventional inspections and maintenance operations (where humans rappel down turbines in sometimes dangerous weather conditions), Aerones’ robots deliver results without any safety risks to individuals, and in a broader range of weather conditions.
“Aerones is the first full-stack player in the industry,” said Sofia Hmich, founder of Future Positive Capital, “as opposed to companies that merely use remote sensing to capture data or focus on analytics, Aerones automates complex operations. They are becoming the one-stop shop for O&Ms to streamline operations and help accelerate the scale-up of renewable energy to reach Net Zero emissions.”
Aerones already works with nine of the world’s 10 largest wind companies, including Siemens Gamesa, Enel, GE, and Vestas, and has now serviced more than 3,000 wind turbines in 17 countries across North and South America as well as Europe.
More info aerones.com
