Project Readiness Package Rev 7/22/11

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION:

Project Name (tentative): Tethered Glider for High Altitude Wind Energy Project Number, if known: P14462

Preferred Start/End Quarter in Senior Design: Fall 2013-Spring 2014

Faculty Champion: (technical mentor: supports proposal development, anticipated technical mentor during project execution; may also be Sponsor)

Name Dept. Email PhoneMario Gomes ME mwgeme@rit .edu 475-21 48

For assistance identifying a Champion: B. Debartolo (ME), G. Slack (EE), J. Kaemmerlen (ISE), R. Melton (CE)

Other Support, if known: (faculty or others willing to provide expertise in areas outside the domain of the Faculty Champion)

Name Dept. Email Phone

Project “Guide” if known: Ed Hanzlik (if amenable)

Primary Customer, if known (name, phone, email): (actual or representative user of project output; articulates needs/requirements)

Mario Gomes, 585 475 2148, mwgeme@rit.edu

Sponsor(s): (provider(s) of financial support)

Name/Organization Contact Info. Type & Amount of Support Committed MSD $500

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Project Readiness Package Rev 7/22/11

PROJECT OVERVIEW: The goal of this project is design, build, and test a tethered airfoil windpower system. These systems are currently in development by several companies all over the world. However, each company has a different design and nobody knows the “best” way to design these systems. These airborne wind energy systems have the ability to harness winds at higher altitudes than conventional wind turbines and use less material to do so. Thus these new systems can produce electric energy at a fraction of the cost of conventional wind turbines, and can be located in places currently classified as “poor” wind sites. The system you will be creating will look very similar to the system in development by Ampyx Power shown in Figure 1.

There are two main methods for transmitting the power generated at the kite or glider to the ground. One method uses small turbines mounted on the kite itself to generate electric power onboard the kite (see Figure 3b). Then this electric power is transmitted to the ground using an electrically conductive tether. A second method transmits power mechanically to the ground through the tether (see Figure 3A). Mechanical transmission of power is done using a “pumping” motion the kite or glider. The pumping motion consists of two phases, a power phase where line is let off the drum when the tether tension is high, and a retraction phase where line is taken up by the drum when the tether tension is low. Although some power is required during the retraction phase is has been shown that this can be less than the amount of power generated during the power phase.

The main goal of this project is to recreate, at a small-scale, a human controlled, tethered glider system. Eventually we would like to use this as a testbed for design changes to a pumping energy production system. However, as a first step, this project’s main goal does not include a base station capable of tether “pumping” motions.

In order to validate and/or improve the performance predictions of our computer simulations we need to accurately measure the motion of various parts of the system. To simplify these measurements, the main measurement requirement is the tether tension and angle at the base-station. Although we

Figure 1: Tethered glider system in devleopment by Ampyx Power in the Netherlands. Image taken from www.ampyxpower.com

Figure 2: Diagram showing swept areas of a conventional horizontal axis wind turbine(HAWT) and an tethered airfoil system.

Figure 3(A&B): Two systems showing mechanical transmission of power to the ground and electrical transmission to the ground. Image taken from [Donnelly 2013]

Figure 1: Tethered glider system in devleopment by Ampyx Power in the Netherlands. Image taken from www.ampyxpower.com

Figure 2: Diagram showing swept areas of a conventional horizontal axis wind turbine(HAWT) and an tethered airfoil system.

Project Readiness Package Rev 7/22/11

know the tether flexes during the motion, for short tethers this flexing is minimal and can be used in the future as part of a more complete sensor package to achieve automatic control of the system.

DETAILED PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Customer Needs: (1:most important, 3:least important) Customer Need #

Importance Description

CN1 1 Tethered glider system (with electric prop assist for launching) that demonstrates at least 3 minutes of continuous circular flight path with taunt tether.

CN2 3 Clean appearanceCN3 1 Human controlled planeCN4 1 No special flight skill requiredCN5 2 Laptop not required for data collectionCN6 1 Tether tension is measured and recorded during flightsCN7 1 Tether direction is measured and recorded during flightsCN8 1 Videos with accompanying data files of all flight tests (even ones that

don’t work)CN9 1 Able to survive crashes with minor repairs (short downtime)

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Figure 4: Three axis load cell system created by Lansdorp et al.Image taken from [Lansdorp 2007].

Figure 5: Three axis load cell allowing for variable tether length created by Chris Donnelley. Image taken from [Donnelly 2013].

Functional Decomposition:

12-24VDC

RC signals from user

Initial Thoughts:The customer will provide a working base station which is capable of measuring the tether tension and direction. This system is the one shown in the PRP. A simpler second option could be to use low friction angle sensors and an in-line load cell to measure tension and tether direction. A simple RC hobby glider can be purchased and modified to resist the additional loading that will be seen when operated in the specified condition. An EPP foam glider with internal reinforcing structure will allow for high strength and impact resistance. An arduino or several of them can be used to interface with the sensors and record the required data to an SD card. Arduino DUE is fast and openLog from sparkfun is easy to interface to this microcontroller.

Specifications (or Engineering/Functional Requirements): Function Specification (metric) Unit of

Measure Marginal Value Ideal Value

S1 System Wingspan m  <=1.5 <1S2 System Weight Lbs  <=6 <=4S3 System System cost $ < 500S4 System Length of looping flight Min. >2 >=3S5 System Resolution of tension data N <=0.1 <=0.01S6 System Resolution of ang. pos. data Deg <=0.5 <=0.1S7 System Typical repair time Min. 5 3S8 System Data sampling rate Hz >=100 >=500S9 System Minimal operational wind speed (at ground level) mph 10 5S10 System Maximum operation wind speed (at ground level) mph 20 40S11 System Safe for user and observers Binary Yes YesS12 System Number of looping trials demonstrated Integer >=25 >=30S13 System Training time (1st time) Min. <30 <20S14 System Number of Left Right horizontal trials Integer >=25 >=30Constraints:

Regulate powerMeasure tether

tension

Measure tether angles

Sample Data Record Data to

SD card

Receive signals Actuate control

surfacesControl flight

path

Project Readiness Package Rev 7/22/11

Project Deliverables: Expected output, what will be “delivered” – be as specific and thorough as possible.

Complete Set of Technical Information:

o Documented set of experimental results for 30 trials with 3min. of looping along with video and accompanying dataset (file naming scheme must be easily understandable)

o MFG and Assembly documentation: on how to fabricate the prototype

Constraints:-Can be inspired by previous base station, but you must test it and/or build your own testbed

Project Deliverables:-working prototype able to demonstrate continued looping of 3min. or longer-working prototype also able to demonstrate horizontal flights for simulation validation.- set of annotated videos showing successful flight with associated data

-(1) <2 minute video explaining project to general public

-(1) video operation guide to running device and changing parameters

- complete sets of raw data (time, angles, loads) for all trials showing data as functions of time along with accompanying video of trial.

- well-written operation/maintenance manual (device operation, data collection, algorithm modification, etc.) [hardcopy and pdf]

-Team will present a summary report on assigned and assimilated benchmarking activities sometime during weeks 3-5. Successful completion of this project requires a solid understanding of rigid body dynamics, machine design, kinematics, and basic control. Student will acquire this knowledge via lecture, reading, observation, and experimentation.

-Team will conduct (2) Project Reviews during MSD 1. A system level review will be held sometime during weeks 4-6. A detailed design review will be held sometime during weeks 7-9.

-Team will conduct a final week 11 review with their Guide.

-Team members will supply Peer Evaluations at the end of weeks 3, 6, 9 per guide's direction.

-Budget Estimate: $500

-Intellectual Property (IP) considerations: All videos, data, and simulation code should be posted on the private section of edge until article publication occurs.

Other Information: Describe potential benefits and liabilities, known project risks, etc.

Continuation Project Information, if appropriate: Include prior project(s) information, and how prior project(s) relate to the proposed project.

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STUDENT STAFFING:

Anticipated Staffing Levels by Discipline:

Discipline How Many? Anticipated Skills Needed

ME 5

ME1: Aeronautical Engineer: responsible for determining aerodyanamic loading on the glider and for possible modifications to improve performanceME2: Structural engineer: responsible for structural design/modifications of glider to resist applied loads without failing or exceeding desired deformationME3: Controls engineer: responsible for data collection and sensor selection and calibration.ME4: Design Engineer: responsible for the design, fabrication and testing of the instrumented base station.ME5: Simulation Engineer: responsible for simulation analysis to determine loading and predict performance of the system.

IE 1IE1: Experimental design engineer: responsible for the Design of Experiments and Data Analysis approach.

OTHER RESOURCES ANTICIPATED:

Category Description Resource Available?

Faculty Mario Gomes

Environment MSD Design Center/ Gomes' Energy in Motion Lab

EE Senior Design lab

Machine Shop & Brinkman lab

Equipment Existing working load cell basestation (GomesLab)

Materials

Other Initial 2D computational model

Project Readiness Package Rev 7/22/11

Graduate student Ashwin Ramesh is available for technical consults (He is working on simulating the kite system and has some knowledge about the existing load-cell basestation unit.)

Prepared by: Mario Gomes Date: 8/18/13

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