Motion Estimation for Tethered Airfoils with Tether Sag*

In this contribution a motion estimation approach for the autonomous flight of tethered airfoils is presented. Accurate motion data are essential for the airborne wind energy sector to optimize the harvested wind energy and for the manufacturer of tethered airfoils to optimize the kite design based on measurement data. We propose an estimation based on tether angle measurements from the ground unit and inertial sensor data from the airfoil. In contrast to existing approaches, we account for the issue of tether sag, which renders tether angle measurements temporarily inaccurate. We formulate a Kalman Filter which adaptively shifts the fusion weight to the measurement with the higher certainty. The proposed estimation method is evaluated in simulations, and a proof of concept is given on experimental data, for which the proposed method yields a three times smaller estimation error than a fixed-weight solution.