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AUTONOMATED DRONE REPAIR FOR WIND TURBINE BLADES 

The Gargoyle Drone can fix wind turbine blades faster, cheaper, and more safely than a human technician

The Concept​

Turbine blade erosion leads to significant annual energy loss and costly, dangerous repairs. Gargoyle drones land, apply, and cure epoxy to restore the blade’s performance. Each drone is modular, lightweight, and built for coordinated swarm operation.

Why it matters

LEE can reduce turbine output by 3–6% annually. Our autonomous approach enables faster repairs and less downtime, cutting maintenance costs while improving energy yield

Our difference

Unlike bulky rigs or rappelling crews, Gargoyle drones are safe, scalable, and operate in parallel. Each unit can perform multiple precision repairs per flight with minimal human oversight.

Blade-repair-1.png

Technology Overview

  • Epoxy delivery: Peristaltic pump and servo-driven squeegee

  • Surface curing: UV LED to cure applied polyurethane coating in under a minute

  • Landing stability: Footpad contoured to blade's leading edge

  • Navigation: Drone technician operates drone flight by looking through mounted camera-fed livestream via monitor

Our system combines off the shelf drone hardware with 3D printed parts to ensure low per-unit cost. Below are the core subsystems and innovations driving Gargoyle’s repair capability.

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Testing & Validation

We conduct progressive testing phases to validate adhesion, material cure, and flight reliability. Below are images and video clips from recent trials.

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Prototype Progress

✔️ Bench-tested epoxy flow system

✔️ Initial landing tests on blade mockups

✔️ UV curing stability verified

⏳ Next: field test on turbine blade section

The Economics

  • Electricity demand in the US is expected to grow between 50-80% by 2050

  • The Wind energy sector is growing by around 6% per year in the US

  • There are about 75,000 wind turbines currently operating in the US with a power capacity of 150 GW, making up about 10% of US energy demand

  • The US is expected to have around 600 GW of wind energy capacity by 2050

  • Improving efficiency loss due to LEE could add 7.5 GW to the US grid today and 20 GW by 2050

  • Median US price for electricity is $0.17 per kWh, so eliminating LEE would generate up to 11 billion dollars in electricity that would otherwise be lost 

Wind Turbines
Wind Turbine Engineers

WHY USE WINDBREAKER

Our approach of using smaller, cheaper drones is more scalable

Other companies are attempting to automate certain repairs of wind turbine. Our advantage is that we offer cheaper services that is at a better price point than our competitors, making us attractive to a wider swath of utilities in the industry. 

Metrics

COST PER REPAIR

REPAIR THROUGHPUT PER DAY

CUSTOMER PAYBACK PERIOD

TURBINES SERVICED

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