Optimal control for a self-reacting point absorber: A one-body equivalent model approach

Abstract

This paper deals with the optimal control of a self-reacting Wave Energy Converter (WEC) where the reaction force is obtained using a damping-plate. Model Predictive Control (MPC) is applied for unconstrained and constrained input control cases. Objective function attempting to optimise the power generation is directly formulated as an absorbed power maximisation problem and thus no optimal reference, such as buoy and/or spar velocity, is required. Moreover, rather than using the full WEC model in the optimisation problem which can be time-consuming, and because of linear assumptions, we propose the use of a phenomenologically one-body equivalent model derived using the Thévenin's theorem.