Control architecture of a prototype for the real-time validation of emersion and immersion maneuvers of underwater devices for energy harnessing

Abstract

The exploitation of renewable marine energy sources requires devices which have been proven to be economically competitive with regard to other traditional energy sources. One of the current study aims is to reduce maintenance costs by successively automating more tasks. It is necessary to design and build laboratory prototypes in order to validate both the dynamic model and the control algorithms for the automatic emersion (depth to the sea surface) and immersion (from the sea surface to the depth of operation) maneuvers of devices with which to harness renewable energies. This paper presents the instrumentation and control architecture of a reduced scale prototype that was conceived for experimentation in a calm water basin.