Adaptive damping power take-off control for a three-body wave energy converter

The performance of the power take-off (PTO) system for a wave energy converter (WEC) depends largely on its control algorithm. This paper presents an adaptive damping control algorithm which improves power capture across a range of sea states. The comparison between this control algorithm and other active control approaches such as linear damping is presented. Short term wave elevation forecasting methods and wave period determination methods are also discussed as pre-requirements for this method. This research is conducted for a novel WEC, developed by Columbia Power Technologies (COLUMBIA POWER). All hydrodynamic models are validated with their 1:7 and 1:33 scale tests.