The ‘aracnocóptero’ is manufactured piece by piece in Salamanca
08 Sep 2014
The director of Arbórea, a company in the USAL Science Park, says that the primary sector has great potential to develop high technology.
Carlos Bernabéu is the director of Arbórea, a company from the USAL Science Park that is present this year at Salamaq at the Caja Rural stand. Bernabéu explains that Iberdrola and the CDTI are participating in Arbórea, a very young company that has been in existence for a year and a half and employs six people, “to accommodate the arachnocopter project, which has been in development since 2008” and which has become one of the attractions of the fair at the Caja Rural stand, where it is on display. Bernabéu explains that the objective of his company is to promote this Spanish technology, which they are working on in different areas, “initially in the industrial sector, the inspection of wind turbines or lines; in this case we have just signed an agreement with Caja Rural Salamanca to promote the technology of the arachnocopter, which is a remotely piloted aerial system.” It is a foldable multi-rotor helicopter intended for the inspection of wind turbine blades.
The arachnocopter, together with its associated software platform, allows for increased efficiency in maintenance inspections of wind turbines, reducing downtime and
achieving a level of detail far superior to that of traditional inspection methods. He highlights that it is manufactured “piece by piece in Salamanca, it is a merit to be an innovative entrepreneur in Spain” and recognises the “great support of the University of Salamanca, Iberdrola and Caja Rural to introduce this technology in the field”. For the head of Arbórea, it represents an innovative
commitment by Caja Rural, with multiple and very interesting applications in the field when it comes to increasing production, reducing costs, being more efficient, reducing work and having
a lower environmental impact. The arachnocopter project is made up of a multidisciplinary team that includes researchers in multi-agent systems and artificial intelligence from USAL, software and mechanical engineers, experts in electronics, telecommunications, behavior and communication of social animals that form swarms, military advisors and specialist technicians in the very diverse applied fields of the product.
This technological investment is part of Iberdrola and the CDTI’s commitment to promoting entrepreneurship and the industrial fabric in Spain, and responds to their effort to promote innovative projects that encourage a change in the production model to achieve a more sustainable society. Modernity hand in hand with the primary sector in a territory, as Bernabéu says, “with extraordinary potential, much of which is still to be developed, areas such as forestry where Castilla y León can say a lot. In livestock farming, the dehesa is one of the most important sustainable ecological systems in the world, where an extraordinary biological wealth of native and migratory fauna is maintained, as well as a traditional system with products that can be exported all over the world, and high technology must reach our countryside.”
Source: salamancartvaldia.com
