The TALOS consortium has published the training materials for all three of its pilot scenarios on the project website. Built around the human-in-the-loop approach that runs through the whole project, the three packages address the operations and maintenance (O&M) teams, asset managers and plant owners who will supervise robotic missions in the field, translating three years of engineering into practical, field-ready guidance.
Each package follows the same structure. It opens with the case for autonomous O&M, PV plants scaling up fast, sites increasingly distant from human settlements, a solar skills shortage that threatens EU targets, and the safety hazards of working inside an operating power station, before setting out the project’s objectives and target outcomes: up to 10% less plant underperformance, 90% lower human risk exposure, maintenance periods shortened by more than 70% and up to 5% lower O&M costs. It then presents the pilot site and the TALOS solution ecosystem partner by partner, walks through the platform’s six-step chain from monitoring to reporting, monitor, detect, recommend, validate, execute, report, and the dashboards operators work in day to day, introduces the robots deployed on site function by function, and closes with the value proposition for operators, asset managers and plant owners, alongside five lessons learned and recommendations for end-users. Below is a short guide to what readers will find in each pilot’s materials, now downloadable directly from the website.
Agri-PV Scenario
The Agri-PV materials are set at Wageningen University & Research’s pear orchard in Randwijk, where 50 kW of monofacial and semi-transparent panels stand above the trees. Readers will find an introduction to agrivoltaics, the simultaneous use of the same land for crop production and solar generation, and to what the orchard trials have shown so far, including a yield decrease alongside unchanged sugar content in the fruit. On the robotics side, the package covers INESC TEC’s inspection UAV and, in greater detail, the autonomous agricultural AGV developed by AUA and CERTH: autonomous navigation between orchard rows, real-time detection of obstacles and people with automatic route replanning, energy management with autonomous docking and recharging, and the EDEN viewer system it carries for crop health monitoring, fruit detection and yield estimation.
⬇ DOWNLOAD AGRI-PV TRAINING FRAMEWORK
Floating PV Scenario
The Floating PV materials are centred on the 5 MW plant at the Alqueva Dam in Portel, the largest floating installation on an artificial lake in Europe. The package introduces the site’s solution ecosystem, from INESC TEC’s inspection UAVs and high-endurance autonomous surface vessel to SolarCleano’s autonomous cleaning robot, and explains how the aerial and waterborne platforms can inspect the plant simultaneously. It then details the coordinated cleaning system in full: the sprinkler installation that supplies water for wet cleaning, LiDAR-based navigation with distance control and obstacle avoidance, automatic stopping when operating conditions are not met, the railing system that automates row exchange, and the docking system that charges the robot wirelessly.
⬇ DOWNLOAD FLOATING PV TRAINING FRAMEWORK
Land-based PV Scenario
The Land-based PV materials cover the Cruz del Hierro hybrid plant in Ávila, part of a two-site hybridisation setup with 28 MW of PV capacity (14 MW + 14 MW) and 56 MW in total once wind is included. The package walks through simultaneous inspection with two autonomous UAVs, then turns to the ground fleet. DTA’s dual-purpose AGV reconfigures itself between a cleaner mode, with a sensorised cleaning arm and water tank, and a mower mode with a retractable cutting-chain system, swapping modes and charging automatically. SolarCleano’s cleaner-and-water-carrier pairing works differently: the lead robot cleans the panels while the trailer follows it by tag-based tracking, supplies water and manages the hose dynamically, with onboard PV modules charging the system as it operates. Safety systems, HMI and remote monitoring, emergency stops, bumpers and obstacle sensors, and platform integration for live mission supervision are covered for both.
⬇ DOWNLOAD LAND-BASED PV TRAINING FRAMEWORK
Together, the three packages give operators, asset managers, plant owners, researchers and policymakers a complete picture of how TALOS turns robotic capability into supervised O&M workflows in real photovoltaic environments, and of what the consortium considers necessary for adoption: supervised autonomy during early roll-out, logistics and support infrastructure planned in advance, updated roles, procedures and training, and a robot-agnostic platform ready to take on further robots and algorithms. The materials will continue to be updated as the demonstration phase progresses, check back on this page for the latest versions.
