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AWE Software overview

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Uwe Fechner edited this page May 8, 2025 · 9 revisions

AWE Software Overview

Julia Kite Power Tools

Simulation software

Tutorials

  • For learning to create mechanical models with ModellingToolkit.jl, have a look at Tethers.jl

Control software

There is the old repository KiteControllers.jl, but this needs to be restructured. Suggestions:

  • split off the winch controller and create a package WinchControllers.jl
  • create a new repo SimpleKiteControllers.jl
    One of the first things to implement would be a path-following controller.

An alternative approach is being developed in the package KitePredictiveControl.jl .

Other open source software

Simulation and Optimization

Three rotating wings

A simulator for a particular kind of TRPT type. TRPT airborne wind energy is a class of windmills that are airborne and where the power of the flying part of the windmill is transferred using torque transfer through a tensile shaft. This particular class of TRPT consists of a soft shaft (possibly with compression rods) and a number of kites rotating in a single layer, connected through a bridle, flying in a ring. And all the kites are of the same type.

MegAWES (rigid wing, pumping mode of operation)

MegAWES is a Matlab/Simulink model of an airborne wind energy (AWE) system based on a tethered rigid wing that is operated in pumping cycles producing multiple megawatt of electricity. The framework is a further development of the graduation project of Dylan Eijkelhof which was jointly supervised by TU Delft, ETH Zurich and DTU. The ultimate purpose is to provide a reference model of a megawatt-range AWE system and a computational framework to simulate its operation.

https://github.com/awegroup/MegAWES

AWEBox

AWEbox is a Python toolbox for modelling and optimal control of multiple-kite systems for Airborne Wind Energy (AWE). It provides interfaces that aim to take away from the user the burden of

  • generating optimization-friendly system dynamics for different combinations of modeling options.
  • formulating optimal control problems for common multi-kite trajectory types.
  • solving the trajectory optimization problem reliably
  • postprocessing and visualizing the solution and performing quality checks
  • tracking MPC design and handling for offline closed-loop simulations

The main focus of the toolbox are rigid-wing, lift- and drag-mode multiple-kite systems.

https://github.com/awebox/awebox

Kite State Estimation

The following project implements an estimator, which would be in particular useful to estimate the wind speed at the kites: https://github.com/ocayon/EKF-AWE/tree/main (Implemented in Python)

It currently only supports LEI kites in pumping mode of operation. Furthermore, it is not yet integrated with KiteModels.jl.

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