System and methods for using machine learning to make intelligent recycling decisions

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising:

• one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
• receive historical operational data for a rotor blade of a wind turbine;
• receive historical materials data identifying composite materials of the rotor blade;
• train a data model in said memory using machine learning based on at least one of historical operational data for other rotor blades, historical materials data for composite materials of the other rotor blades, and end-of-life (EOL) testing data for the other rotor blades,
• determine quality grades for materials included in respective composite materials of the rotor blade, wherein the quality grades are determined by using said data model to process the historical operational data and the historical materials data, wherein the quality grades include at least one of:
• a first quality grade for a first material of a composite material, of the respective composite materials, and a second quality grade for a second material of the same composite material, the first quality grade being different than the second quality grade, and
• a third quality grade for a first portion of the first material and a fourth quality grade for a second portion of the first material;
• determine a recycling recommendation based on the quality grades, wherein the recycling recommendation includes at least one of:
• a first set of cut instructions indicating to separate first material from the second material using first measurement data that identifies boundaries of the first material and boundaries of the second material, and
• a second cut instructions indicating to separate the first portion of the first material from the second portion of the first material using second measurement data that identifies boundaries of the first portion and boundaries of the second portion;
• and
• deliver the recycling recommendation to a controller that provides the first set of cut instructions that include the first measurement data and/or the second set of cut instructions that include the second measurement data to equipment configured to perform a cutting task,
• wherein the equipment, in response to receiving the first set of cut instructions, cuts the composite material of the rotor blade such that the first material with the first quality grade is separated from the second material with the second quality grade, and
• wherein the equipment, in response to receiving the second set of cut instructions, cuts the first material, which is part of the composite material of the rotor blade, such that the first portion with the third quality grade is separated from the second portion with the fourth quality grade.

A device, comprising:

• one or more memories;
• and
• one or more processors, communicatively coupled to the one or more memories, to:
• receive historical operational data for a rotor blade of a wind turbine;
• receive historical materials data identifying composite materials of the rotor blade;
• determine one or more quality grades for materials included in respective composite materials of the rotor blade, wherein the quality grades are determined by using a data model to process the historical operational data and the historical operational data, and wherein the data model has been trained using machine learning based on at least one of historical operational data for other rotor blades, historical materials data for composite materials of the other rotor blades, and end-of-life (EOL) testing data for the other rotor blades, wherein the quality grades for a composite material, of the respective composite materials, include sets of one or more quality grades for each material of the composite material, wherein a set of quality grades for a first material include a first quality grade for a first portion of the first material and a second quality grade for a second portion of the first material;
• determine a recycling recommendation based on the one or more quality grades, wherein the recycling recommendation includes a set of cut instructions indicating to separate the first portion of the first material from the second portion of the first material using measurement data that identifies boundaries of the first portion and boundaries of the second portion;
• and
• deliver the recycling recommendation to a controller that provides the set of cut instructions that include the measurement data to equipment configured to perform a cutting task, wherein the equipment, in response to receiving the set of cut instructions, cuts the first material, which is part of the composite material of the rotor blade, such that the first portion with the first quality grade is separated from the second portion with the second quality grade.