Related papers: An Optimal Control Framework for Airborne Wind Ene…
Airborne Wind Energy Systems (AWES) have emerged as a promising renewable energy technology that exploits stronger, more consistent high-altitude winds via tethered airborne devices. Among the various concepts, crosswind systems, where…
A control design approach to achieve fully autonomous take-off and flight maneuvers with a tethered aircraft is presented and demonstrated in real-world flight tests with a small-scale prototype. A ground station equipped with a controlled…
Airborne wind energy (AWE) systems are tethered flying devices that harvest wind resources at higher altitudes which are not accessible to conventional wind turbines. In order to become a viable alternative to other renewable energy…
Pumping airborne wind energy (AWE) systems employ a kite to convert wind energy into electricity, through a cyclic reeling motion of the tether. The problem of computing the optimal reeling speed for the sake of maximizing the average cycle…
An approach to control tethered wings for airborne wind energy is proposed. A fixed length of the lines is considered, and the aim of the control system is to obtain figure-eight crosswind trajectories. The proposed technique is based on…
Airborne wind energy systems aim to generate renewable energy by means of the aerodynamic lift produced by a wing tethered to the ground and controlled to fly crosswind paths. The problem of maximizing the average power developed by the…
Real-time altitude control of airborne wind energy (AWE) systems can improve performance by allowing turbines to track favorable wind speeds across a range of operating altitudes. The current work explores the performance implications of…
This study presents a comprehensive mathematical framework for modeling the flight dynamics of a six-degree-of-freedom fixed-wing aircraft as a rigid body with three control surfaces: rudder, elevators, and ailerons. The framework consists…
Optimal control theory extending from the calculus of variations has not been used to study the wind turbine power system (WTPS) control problem, which aims at achieving two targets: (i) maximizing power generation in lower wind speed…
The control design of an airborne wind energy system with rigid aircraft, vertical take-off and landing, and pumping operation is described. A hierarchical control structure is implemented, in order to address all operational phases:…
Airborne wind energy systems are capable of extracting energy from higher wind speeds at higher altitudes. The configuration considered in this paper is based on a tethered kite flown in a pumping orbit. This pumping cycle generates energy…
In this paper, we deal with the power regulation of tethered-wing systems and demonstrate advantages of variable-pitch control in mitigating the dynamic mechanical loads and power fluctuations. The proposed scheme is based on a strategy…
The research presents an automated method for determining the trajectory of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for wind turbine inspection. The proposed method enables efficient data collection from multiple wind installations using UAV…
Airborne Wind Energy (AWE) refers to a novel technology capable of harvesting energy from wind by flying crosswind patterns with tethered autonomous aircraft. Successful design of flight controllers for AWE systems rely on the availability…
Accurate and efficient aeroelastic models are critically important for enabling the optimization and control of highly flexible aerospace structures, which are expected to become pervasive in future transportation and energy systems.…
It has been asserted previously by the author that optimal control theory can be a valuable framework for theoretical studies about the shape that a wind instrument should have in order to satisfy some optimization criterion, inside a…
Motivated by the increasing concerns over environmental challenges such as global warming and the exhaustion of fossil-fuel reserves, the renewable energy industry has become the most demanded electrical energy production source worldwide.…
The problem of launching a tethered aircraft to be used for airborne wind energy generation is investigated. Exploiting well-assessed physical principles, an analysis of three different take-off approaches is carried out. The approaches are…
The problem of autonomous launch and landing of a tethered rigid aircraft for airborne wind energy generation is addressed. The system operates with ground-based power conversion and pumping cycles, where the tether is repeatedly reeled in…
The design of a prototype to carry out take-off and flight tests with tethered aircrafts is presented. The system features a ground station equipped with a winch and a linear motion system. The motion of these two components is regulated by…