A robotic access system including a robotic fan crawler configured to traverse a surface of a wind turbine and perform one or more tasks. The robotic fan crawler includes one or more fans to adhere the robotic fan crawler to the surface of the wind turbine and one or more driving components to drive the robotic fan crawler along the surface of the wind turbine. The robotic fan crawler further includes one or more omnidirectional cameras operable to capture images of the surface from multiple perspectives during an inspection activity and data collection period. One or more steering components provide directional changes of the robotic fan crawler during operation. A tether cable is coupled to the robotic fan crawler and a tether management system to provide one or more of power, communications, grounding, supplies and distance calculations.