Market trends and business prospects
December 10, 2021, David Edwards 1 comment
Heliogen, a centralized solar supplier backed by Bill Gates, has introduced a new robot that the company describes as a "technical breakthrough" for low-cost renewable energy production.
During the field test at Heliogen's Lancaster, California plant, the company successfully completed the first technical demonstration of an autonomous field maintenance system, namely Heliogen's installation and cleaning of autonomous robots and utility solutions, or "ICARUS". (See the video below.)
By using the same advanced technology to enable its artificial intelligence-enabled concentrating solar systems to install and maintain these systems, the company’s latest innovations are expected to significantly shorten the implementation time of its concentrating solar facilities, as well as related costs and construction and sustainability. maintain.
Heliogen's concentrating solar facilities use mirror heliostat arrays that require maintenance and cleaning to ensure the best optical performance and high level of power generation efficiency.
For traditional solar power plants, traditional manual cleaning methods are expensive and laborious, so they are only completed every few months.
In order to improve cost savings and operational efficiency, Heliogen designed the ICARUS system, which uses GPS, ultrasonic rangefinders and light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensors for fully autonomous operation, while collecting performance data to achieve the entire life cycle of operations And cost-effective mirror field.
The ICARUS system is designed to automatically clean the mirror area according to a predetermined schedule, so that the system maintains the best performance with minimal manual intervention.
In addition to cleaning and maintenance operations, ICARUS can also be used to automatically transport heliostats from assembly or storage locations to the site and install them with an accuracy of up to 2 cm, thereby reducing system installation costs.
The ICARUS system can then record the installation location and transfer it to the field model, thereby improving the accuracy of the field control software and eliminating the need for expensive calibration.
The future solar power plant device developed by Heliogen and ICARUS can be built around the clock, with computer vision accuracy and minimal manual labor.
ICARUS is designed to handle structured and unstructured environments, and easily cope with various terrains. The system also has built-in obstacle detection and avoidance functions, so anything that suddenly appears on its path-whether it is a person, animal or debris-will be recognized and avoided automatically.
Bill Gross, Founder and CEO of Heliogen, said: "Heliogen pioneered a unique combination of hardware and software to improve performance and reduce the cost of its concentrating solar system. By leveraging advances in Moore's Law, artificial intelligence, computing, and computer vision Bringing a huge increase in processing power, Heliogen aims to make solar energy cheaper than ever.
"ICARUS' first technology demonstration is a leap forward in Heliogen's mission to replace fossil fuels with concentrated sunlight-cost-effective and scale."
Heliogen's breakthrough concentrating solar system uses artificial intelligence to precisely align mirrors with unprecedented precision, providing carbon-free energy in the form of heat, electricity or green hydrogen fuel.
Leveraging the same advances in artificial intelligence and automation, ICARUS aims to simplify the installation and maintenance of Heliogen's future full-scale concentrated solar power plants in order to reduce the cost of renewable energy for commercial and industrial applications.
It is expected that by 2023, ICARUS will be deployed in Heliogen's full-scale facility.
Submitted as follows: self-driving cars, news tagged as: autonomous, clean, centralized, cost, design, energy, field, daylight, icarus, installation, maintenance, performance, power, solar, system
Super cool automation, especially when cleaning is effective. But how to protect the base? The video only shows a flat base on the ground. Is that right? Doesn't need an anchor because it is heavy enough? Can robots also be electrically interconnected?
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