The challenge
As a keen bagpipe player, Matthew McLean is no stranger to making air do weird and wonderful things. But now he’s found a new use for air to try and reduce the risks for people working offshore.
At the moment, workers need to take boats out to offshore wind farms to inspect the turbines and make sure they’re working properly. There are risks involved with working far out at sea, especially if the weather suddenly turns stormy.
The boats used to reach offshore wind farms also need to burn around 300 litres of diesel each hour to power their engines. For a “green” industry such as offshore wind, finding environmentally sustainable ways to inspect turbines is a key challenge.
The solution
During his aero-mechanical engineering degree at the University of Strathclyde, Matthew became fascinated with how robots and drones can be used to solve problems. After completing his degree, he founded Airspection in 2022 to develop a tough drone – which can fly to remote locations, carry out inspections, and then return to base – and brought on board Chris Fowler as chief technology officer.
What sets Airspection apart is its drones’ ability to fly long distances and then hover for a long time. The company has already developed two prototypes and has filed a patent to protect its technology. The firm recently demonstrated the drones’ ability to inspect a wind turbine blade at the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult’s facility at Blyth in Northumberland.
For wind farms located close to the coast, Matthew and Chris envisage their drones being based at maintenance ports and then flown to inspect turbines from control rooms on shore. For offshore wind farms built further out at sea, they expect the drones would be carried on service operational vehicles that would be moored at sites for a week or more at a time, with the drones controlled from back on dry land via satellite communications.
How VBI helped
In the autumn of 2023, Airspection was part of the fourth cohort to go through the University of Edinburgh Venture Builder Incubator (VBI). “The programme is really comprehensive and compact, and I learned a lot about customer discovery and validation,” explained Matthew.
“Our VBI programme was connected to Barclays Eagle Labs’ robotics and autonomous systems stream, so we got connections to the National Robotarium, which we’re looking into, and to Branch Robotics, a consultancy firm that we’re working with to develop both the autonomous side and also the regulatory side.”
As well as providing mentorship support, Barclays Eagle Labs also gives VBI companies access to its premises throughout the UK, including sites in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and businesswoman Marie Macklin’s Halo urban regeneration project in Kilmarnock.
The National Robotarium is one of the six hubs set up by the Edinburgh & South-East Scotland City-Region Deal’s Data-Driven Innovation initiative and brings together experts from the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University.
The next steps
Airspection aims to raise £300,000 this year during its first investment round. The money will allow the business to move from the prototype stage through to carrying out trials of its drones.
The company has also secured a place in the latest cohort to go through the TechX Clean Energy Accelerator at the Net Zero Technology Centre in Aberdeen. The grant funding linked to the accelerator programme has allowed the business to hire a control systems engineer, with Matthew and Chris aiming to recruit more staff.
Offshore wind is only the first of many markets that could benefit from Airspection’s technology. The drones could also be used to inspect power lines, railway tracks, and other remote infrastructure, helping to get networks up-and-running again following storms, as well as carrying out scheduled inspections.