Modeling and Simulation of a New Tethered Wind Power System

Abstract

This paper presents a dynamic simulation model of tethered-wind power systems, consisting an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a generator placed on the ground level. The UAV is connected with the generator using a tether, which the tether is oriented upwind and downwind. A simple model was developed in MATLAB using ODE45 solver to capture the dominant dynamics and to verify the feasibility of the system. The simulation shows that the proposed system is viable and capable of periodic motions. The power out of the system was simulated, which predicts the average power out is about 600 watts in a 15m/s wind.