ARVADA, CO—Engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are using robots to improve the consistency of wind turbine blades. Although robots have been used by the wind energy industry to paint and polish blades, automation has not been widely adopted.

In the new application, a six-axis machine safely trims, grinds and sands blades. Those steps occur after the two sides of the blade are made using a mold and then bonded together.