Control Co-Design for Buoyancy-Controlled MHK Turbine: A Nested Optimization of Geometry and Spatial-Temporal Path Planning

Abstract: Recent research progress has confirmed that using advanced controls can result in massive increases in energy capture for marine hydrokinetic (MHK) energy systems, including ocean current turbines (OCTs) and wave energy converters (WECs); however, to realize maximum benefits, the controls, power-take-off system, and basic structure of the device must all be co-designed from early stages. This paper presents an OCT turbine control co-design framework, accounting for the plant geometry and spatial-temporal path planning to optimize the performance. Developing a control co-design framework means that it is now possible to evaluate the effects of changing plant geometry on a level playing field when accounting for the OCT plant power optimization. The investigated framework evaluates the key design parameters, including the sizes of the generator, rotor, and variable buoyancy tank in the OCT system, and formulates these parameters' effect on the OCT model and harnessed power through defining a power-to-weight ratio, subject to the design and operational constraints. The control co-design is formulated as a nested optimization problem, where the outer loop optimizes the plant geometry and the inner loop accounts for the spatial-temporal path planning to optimize the harnessed power with respect to the linear model of the OCT system and ocean current uncertainties. Compared with a baseline design, results verify the efficacy of the proposed framework in co-designing an optimal OCT system to gain the maximum power-to-weight ratio.