Preliminary Research on Modelling and Control of Two Line Kites for Power Generation

Abstract

Wind power is the second largest renewable resource from which we can obtain electricity besides hydropower. Wind farms have had significant growth in past decades; however, they require a massive investment to setup including heavy towers, large land scale and huge blades. Betz’s law states that the maximum power of the wind turbine can harvest only 59.3%. Therefore, surfing kites have been proposed as a promising electricity generation alternative. This study aims to build a suitable simulation platform to study the modeling and control of kite for power generation. In this paper, different types of the kite and their control paradigm have been reviewed and two-line surf kites have been identified as the subject of the investigation. By analyzing Newtonian mechanics theory, the dynamic model of a kite is established. Moreover, the kite power generation cycle and retraction cycle is explained. ?n this paper, the simulation results demonstrate the power generation ability of a two-line surf kite. Considering the input constraints, a linear control system is proposed and simulated to make the kite achieve a figure eight configuration needed for power generation. The Simulink toolbox has then been employed to simulate the linear control scheme to determine its stability and performance.