Modeling, simulation, hardware development, and testing of a lab-scale airborne wind energy system

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dc.contributor.authorKlein-Miloslavich, Andreas
dc.contributor.supervisorCrawford, Curran
dc.date.accessioned2020-01-24T22:50:33Z
dc.date.available2020-01-24T22:50:33Z
dc.date.copyright2020en_US
dc.date.issued2020-01-24
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Mechanical Engineering
dc.degree.levelMaster of Applied Science M.A.Sc.en_US
dc.description.abstractAirborne Wind Energy Systems (AWES) harness the power of high-altitude winds using tethered planes or kites. Continuous and reliable operation requires that AWES become autonomous devices, but the wind intermittency forces the system to repeatedly take-off to start, and land to shut-off. Therefore, a common approach to facilitate the operation is implementing Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) functionality. This thesis models and simulates AWES flights working towards the implementation of flight controller hardware and autonomous operation of an AWES demonstrator platform. The Ardupilot open-source autopilot platform provides a convenient tool for modeling, simulation, and hardware implementation of small-scale airplanes. An AWES lab-scale demonstrator was developed to obtain operational insight, get preliminary flight data, and real-world experience in this technology. A quadplane was developed by combining a structurally reinforced glider with VTOL and autopilot components. Its performance is obtained from static and aerodynamic studies and converted into the Ardupilot parameter format to define it in the simulation. An AWES flight model was developed from the ground up to evaluate the performance of a simple flight controller in trajectory tracking. The Ardupilot Software-in-Loop (SIL) tool expands the simulation capabilities by running the flight controller code without requiring any hardware. This allowed controller tuning and flight plan evaluation with a more advanced fight model. AWES crosswind flight simulation was only possible due to the incorporation of an elastic tether and an ideal winch into the physics model. As a result, different trajectories and configurations were tested to find the optimal parameters that were uploaded to the flight controller board. The operational capabilities of the AWES demonstrator were expanded with a flight testing campaign. By targeting individual objectives, each test gradually increased its complexity and ensured that the flight envelope was safely expanded. The results were validated with the simulation before moving on to the next flight test. The testing campaign is still underway due to challenges and limitations presented by the legal and logistical aspects of operating the quadplane. However, preliminary flight tests in VTOL mode have been completed and were consistent with the simulated results in terms of autonomous waypoint navigation and attitude control.en_US
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/11508
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectAirborne Wind Energyen_US
dc.subjectFlight modelen_US
dc.subjectPrototype developmenten_US
dc.subjectQuadplaneen_US
dc.subjectVertical take-off and landingen_US
dc.subjectAutopiloten_US
dc.subjectOpen-sourceen_US
dc.subjectFlight simulationen_US
dc.subjectFlight testen_US
dc.titleModeling, simulation, hardware development, and testing of a lab-scale airborne wind energy systemen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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