AWEsome: An open-source test platform for airborne wind energy systems

TL;DR

AWEsome is an open-source, low-cost test platform for airborne wind energy systems using modified model aircraft and autopilot hardware, enabling affordable testing of control strategies and designs.

Contribution

It introduces a standardized open-source test environment for airborne wind energy, combining off-the-shelf hardware with new flight modes for autonomous tethered flight.

Findings

Successful real-flight tests of new autonomous flight modes

Demonstration of the platform's capability for testing control strategies

Low-cost hardware setup suitable for research and startups

Abstract

In this paper we present AWEsome (Airborne Wind Energy Standardized Open-source Model Environment), a test platform for airborne wind energy systems that consists of low-cost hardware and is entirely based on open-source software. It can hence be used without the need of large financial investments, in particular by research groups and startups to acquire first experiences in their flight operations, to test novel control strategies or technical designs, or for usage in public relations. Our system consists of a modified off-the-shelf model aircraft that is controlled by the pixhawk autopilot hardware and the ardupilot software for fixed wing aircraft. The aircraft is attached to the ground by a tether. We have implemented new flight modes for the autonomous tethered flight of the aircraft along periodic patterns. We present the principal functionality of our algorithms. We report on first successful tests of these modes in real flights.