Partnerships Needed for ARROW(e) Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI) Robotic Crawler

Opportunity Description: In need of industry partner with infrastructure inspection experience that would like to commercialize a non-destructive inspection (NDI) robotic crawler for the inspection of wind turbine blades. ARROW(e) (Assessment Robot for Resilient Optimized Wind Energy) has been developed over two years and evaluated at a lab scale and on ground-based inspection specimens. NTESS’s portion of the work is funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) and is funded for three years. Partners will fund their portion of the work through cash or in-kind funding ( i.e., staff hours, equipment, facilities ) to get ARROW(e) to a commercialization state. Experience/understanding of NDI inspection methods for composite materials, especially for wind turbine blades is preferred. Collaborators can be any non-federal entity, including private companies, state or local governments—or entities created by a state or local government—universities, or non-profit organizations. Collaborators must agree to engage in activities that focus on commercializing or deploying technologies in the marketplace. NTESS invites interested parties to provide a detailed description of relevant background, experience, expertise, and capabilities that could be brought into a collaboration with NTESS. Specific requirements are as follows: Knowledge and skills to bring products or services to market. Demonstrated experience, expertise, or products in identified technology area. Capable of providing a minimum of three hundred thousand dollars (U.S. $300,000) in project funding using non-federal funds during the course of the proposed project, either in-kind or cash contribution. In addition to evaluating the provided information as outlined above, NTESS will evaluate all responses and select prospective parties with which to engage in further discussions based on the following criteria, pursuant to NTESS’s technology transfer mission: How will the respondent deploy the technology for the benefit of the public good? How will the respondent’s deployment of the technology benefit U.S. economic competitiveness? Background Information : Since 2016 the DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions (DOE-OTT) issues an annual TCF call for proposals. The TCF provides funding to bridge the technology maturation gap and helps to facilitate federal Research and Development (R&D) investments in technologies with commercial potential. TCF offers an opportunity for private industry to collaborate with DOE’S Laboratories to advance national laboratory-developed energy technologies and Intellectual Property (IP) toward commercialization. You can find more information about TCF at DOE’s website: https://www.energy.gov/technologytransitions/services/technology-commercialization-fund. What are the Benefits of Collaborating with NTESS on ARROW(E) Project? 1:1 Cost Share - DOE will match Participant investment, to cover NTESS’s portion of the joint R&D project Partnerships will result in Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). A CRADA-facilitates the transfer of technology, capabilities, and knowledge from the laboratory to the CRADA Participant for the benefit of the U.S. economy. A CRADA mutually protects the Parties, provides IP disposition, and allows the development of a Statement of Work to align technical objectives. Timeline: Additional partners should respond by the end of 12/2021. NTESS and respective partners will have up to six months to execute CRADA. Primary Point of Contact: Lily Shain [email protected] Keywords: Wind Energy Technologies, Robotic, Crawler, NDI, Nondestructive Inspection, Wind Blade, Inspection, Wind, Drones, Inspection Drones.