Controle da trajetória de pipa para a geração de energia

Abstract

Wind energy has increased significantly in Brazil. However, the traditional form of power generation with wind turbines has some drawbacks, such as high weight/power ratio and difficulty in reaching the intense winds of the upper layers of the atmosphere. For this reason researchers are looking for alternatives for extracting energy from winds. One of these alternatives is energy generation with kites. This method was originally published in the 80?s, and has had its research intensified in the last ten years. The main interest in this method is the theoretical capacity to generate more energy using less material than a traditional turbine. This work presents the simulation of a kite power system. It is discussed, presented and validated a computational model of the system. From this model, two control strategies, named bang-bang and NMPC are studied. For the bang-bang control the parameters for maximum power generation are searched. This operating point is analyzed and tested under turbulence. The results are then compared with the NMPC control. The comparison is based on the average power generated, on the effort of the controller and on the computational cost of each strategy. This demonstrates that the NMPC control has a power generation of 98% of the theoretical maximum for the kite considered. This is 8,7% more than the bang-bang, despite demanding greater computational effort. In this way, the NMPC is established as an attractive control strategy for this problem.(sic)