Experimental Assessment of Generalised Super-Twisting Control for Optimal Reference Tracking in Wave Energy Systems

FACUNDO DANIEL MOSQUERA; NICOLÁS FAEDO; PAUL PULESTON; CAROLINA EVANGELISTA

Yokohama

Congreso; IFAC World Congress; 2023

International Federation of Automatic Control

Maximise wave energy extraction is a crucial goal for successful operation of wave energy converters. In particular, this objective can be attained by appropriate control strategies. In this paper, a control scheme applied to an experimental wave energy converter setup is presented. The control strategy combines an optimal moment-based reference generation technique with a higher-order sliding mode tracking controller capable of providing a robust tracking of the associated reference, regardless the uncertainty present in the experimental operation. Within the presented assessment, the device is excited with two different irregular sea states. Results show that the control structure can effectively deal with the system underlying uncertainty, obtaining an excellent tracking performance while guiding the system to the corresponding surface following the theoretical phase plot convergence. In addition, a comparison against a PID tracking control structure shows that a proper modification of the tracking element of the loop can improve energy extraction. Finally, performance results for both sea states are analysed, where consistent tracking error and phase plot evolution behaviour, can be observed.