Control of Towing Kites for Seagoing Vessels
This work addresses the practical control of towing kites for seagoing vessels, an incremental improvement in a niche application.
The paper presents the flight control system for the SkySails towing kite, including a novel model for controller design validated by sea trials, and describes the controller used in operational flights for several years.
In this paper we present the basic features of the flight control of the SkySails towing kite system. After introduction of coordinate definitions and basic system dynamics we introduce a novel model used for controller design and justify its main dynamics with results from system identification based on numerous sea trials. We then present the controller design which we successfully use for operational flights for several years. Finally we explain the generation of dynamical flight patterns.