Optimal kite control in spatiotemporally varying flow fields - ACC 2021

Two papers submitted (and accepted) to the 2021 American Control Conference (ACC), both focused on different attributes of kite control in variable flow environments. Siddiqui et. al. focuses on tether elevation angle control in a spatiotemporally varying environment, and Reed et. al. focuses on spooling control in such an environment. The abstracts of each accepted paper are included below: Siddiqui - Gaussian Process-Based Receding Horizon Adaptive Control.pdf This work focuses on the development of an adaptive control strategy that fuses Gaussian process modeling and receding horizon control to ideally manage the tradeoff between exploration (i.e., maintaining an adequate map of the resource) and exploitation (i.e., carrying out a mission, which consists in this work of harvesting the resource). The use of a receding horizon formulation aids in the consideration of limited mobility, which is characteristic of dynamical systems. In this work, we focus on an airborne wind energy (AWE) system as a case study, where the system can vary its elevation angle (tether angle relative to the ground, which trades off higher efficiency with higher-altitude operation) and flight path parameters in order to maximize power output in a wind environment that is changing in space and time. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach through a data-driven study on a rigid wing-based AWE system. Reed - Optimal Cyclic Control of an Ocean Kite System in a Spatiotemporally Varying Flow Environment.pdf This paper presents a technique for maximizing the power production of a tethered marine energy-harvesting kite performing cross-current figure-eight flight in a 3D spatiotemporally varying flow environment. To generate a net positive power output, the kite employs a cyclic spooling method, where the kite is spooled out while flying in high-tension crosscurrent figure-eight flight, then spooled in radially towards the base-station under low tension.

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