SimpleKiteControllers

Introduction

This package provides:

• a path following figure of eight controller

Planned:

• a controller for flying circles
• a parking controller, that keeps the nose of the kite pointing into the wind and thus keeps it in a steady state airborne as long as their is sufficient wind

This package provides

• the figure-of-eight path-following guidance: the types FigureEightController and FigureEightSettings and the functions figure_eight_path, calc_attractor, navigate_fig8, set_path_center!, path_tangent
• the curvature feasibility check check_pattern_feasible (with min_turn_radius, path_min_radius, path_radius_profile) — a pattern tighter than the kite's minimum turn radius cannot be tracked at any PID tuning, so this is worth running before a simulation, not after
• turn_rate_coeffs, the identified turn-rate-law coefficients c1, c2 and steering delay the feasibility check needs, interpolated in depower from data/turn_rate_coeffs.yaml
• fig8_metrics / print_fig8_metrics, headless quality metrics for a flown run
• FC_Settings, every tuning parameter of a figure-of-eight run, loaded from data/fc_settings.yaml
• the types ParkingController and ParkingControllerSettings and the functions linearize, calc_steering, navigate — the NDI/turn-rate building blocks for the planned parking controller; unit-tested, but not yet driven end-to-end in an example (see TODO)

Examples

examples/simple_fig8.jl flies the figure-of-eight controller on the TU Delft V3 kite, using V3Kite.jl as the plant.

For easy use of the examples and scripts it is suggested to install the package using git:

git clone https://github.com/OpenSourceAWE/SimpleKiteControllers.jl
cd SimpleKiteControllers.jl/bin
./install
./create_sys_image
cd ..
./bin/run_julia

The step create_sys_image is not strictly needed and takes 15-60 min. Skip it if you are short of time.

Then, from a Julia REPL in this repository:

menu()

This function will show the following menu:

Choose example to run or `q` to quit: 
 > select_project.jl     - choose which system project (150m/200m/300m) to fly
   select_sim_time.jl    - choose the simulation time (default or a specific value)
   select_plots.jl       - choose which figures to show (pattern/time series/aerodynamics)
   simple_fig8.jl        - fly the figure-of-eight pattern (minutes!)
   simple_fig8_plots.jl  - plot the last logged run of active project
   quit

The first three entries allow you to change the simulation settings. The script simple_fig8.jl runs the simulation and displays the results. The script simple_fig8_plots.jl allows you to analyse the results of simulations you run in the past.

TODO

• add examples for using the parking controller
• the figure-of-eight path follower (Fernandes_2022) is implemented, but the entry state machine, the winch force mode and the heading PID still live in examples/simple_fig8.jl rather than in a controller type

Related

A fully working set of flight path controllers and planners can be found here: KiteControllers.jl