Performance of a Cable-Driven Robot Used for Cyber–Physical Testing of Floating Wind Turbines

Cyber–physical testing has been applied for a decade in hydrodynamic laboratories to assess the dynamic performance of floating wind turbines (FWTs) in realistic wind and wave conditions. Aerodynamic loads, computed by a numerical simulator fed with model test measurements, are applied in real time on the physical model using actuators. The present paper proposes a set of short and targeted benchmark tests that aim to quantify the performance of actuators used in cyber–physical FWT testing. They aim at ensuring good load tracking over all frequencies of interest and satisfactory disturbance rejection for large motions to provide a realistic test setup. These benchmark tests are exemplified on two radically different 15 MW FWT models tested at SINTEF Ocean using a cable-driven robot.