Low Cost Controller for Wave Energy Converter

Abstract

This study addresses a low computation cost controller for maximizing energy absorption of a point absorber in wave energy converters (WEC). The objective can be achieved by ensuring the perfect tracking between the buoy’s velocity and its reference. In particular, the sliding mode control (SMC) is proposed for achieving the maximum energy in WEC. The SMC is considered to be a low cost controller because it is a fixed controller and tuned offline. In order to prove the effectiveness of the SMC, a computer simulation is conducted using the actual polychromatic ocean wave. The proposed controller is tested under the nominal case and its perturbations. The perturbation scenario considers the un-model dynamic of the losses force and perturbation in the excitation force. For the sake of comparison, another low cost controller so called passive reactive controller is simulated under the same condition with the proposed SMC.