Melhuish, who is director of the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Lab at the UWE, told CNN that the EcoBot II was a result of a quest for an intelligent robot that could function without human supervision.

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The result is what Rubin calls a sort of biotech-style screening lab.

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In addition to the fatigue testing, the lab does modal analysis, to evaluate what will happen to the blades as a result of unpredictable wind gusts.

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