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JONAS KETTERLE
Internship Field: Mechanical Engineering, Wind Energy (R&D)
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Host: Fraunhofer Institut Fabrikbetrieb und -automatisierung (Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation): for all Fraunhofer institutes see http://www.fraunhofer.de
Location: Magdeburg
Duration: 3 months in Summer 2006
Description: "The project I worked on was to do initial design work for a robot that autonomously inspects wind turbine blades for damage using non destructive testing. My duties became more and more detailed as I went on. At first, I had to familiarize myself with windpower technology and robotics. After learning about the project background, I did online research to learn about the sensor systems, robotic motion, wind power, and competing inspection systems. I documented all of this research using MS Visio and Word. In parallel, I developed multiple robot designs to imagine how a robot could possibly accomplish this complex task. I learned how to use a variety of matrixes and evaluations to refine designs, and ultimately narrow the project down to one robot. To share my robot designs, I did extensive sketching by hand, as well as documentation in AutoCAD, and 3-D visualization and animation of robots in Pro-E. Learning Pro-E took a while, but now I feel quite competent in it."
For further information, please write to ketterle@stanford.edu