Control strategy for multiple kites on a single ground power unit
AssigneeMakani Technologies LLC
InventorDamon Vander Lind
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems described herein relate to power generation control for an aerial vehicle. An example method may involve determining an asynchronous flight pattern for two or more aerial vehicles, where the asynchronous flight pattern includes a respective flight path for each of the two or more aerial vehicles; and operating each of the aerial vehicles in a crosswind flight substantially along its respective flight path, where each aerial vehicle generates electrical power over time in a periodic profile, and where the power profile of each aerial vehicle is out of phase with respect to the power profile generated by each of the other aerial vehicles.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- determining an asynchronous flight pattern for two or more aerial vehicles coupled to a ground station, wherein the asynchronous flight pattern comprises a respective flight path for each of the two or more aerial vehicles, and wherein the ground station is coupled to a common shared ground power unit;
- and
- operating each of the aerial vehicles in a crosswind flight substantially along its respective flight path, wherein each aerial vehicle generates electrical energy over time in a periodic profile, and wherein the profile of each aerial vehicle is out of phase with respect to each profile of the other aerial vehicles.
A method comprising:
- determining at least one preferred phase differential between periodic power profiles generated by two of two or more aerial vehicles coupled to a ground station, wherein the ground station is coupled to a shared ground power unit;
- based at least on the at least one preferred phase differential, determining an asynchronous flight pattern for the aerial vehicles, wherein the determined asynchronous flight pattern comprises a respective flight path for each of the aerial vehicles;
- operating each of the aerial vehicles in a crosswind flight substantially along its respective flight path, wherein each aerial vehicle generates electrical power over time in a periodic profile, and wherein a phase differential between the power profiles generated by two of the aerial vehicles is substantially the preferred phase differential.
A method comprising:
- determining a deployment order for two or more aerial vehicles coupled to a ground station, wherein each aerial vehicle is configured to operate substantially along a respective flight path to generate electrical power, and wherein the ground station is coupled to a shared ground power unit;
- assigning the deployment order to the two or more aerial vehicles;
- deploying the two or more aerial vehicles according to the assigned deployment order, wherein deploying the two or more vehicles according to the assigned deployment order comprises:
- for an aerial vehicle in a first position of the deployment order, (i) deploying the aerial vehicle, (ii) operating the aerial vehicle in a loitering flight;
- for each aerial vehicle in the assigned deployment order between the aerial vehicle in the first position of the deployment order and an aerial vehicle in a last position of the deployment order, (i) determining that the preceding aerial vehicle in the assigned deployment order is operating in the loitering flight, (ii) deploying the aerial vehicle (iii) operating the aerial vehicle in a loitering flight;
- for the aerial vehicle in the last position of the deployment order, (i) determining that the preceding aerial vehicle in the assigned deployment order is operating in the loitering flight, (ii) deploying the aerial vehicle, (iii) operating the aerial vehicle in a crosswind flight.
A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein instructions executable by one or more processors to cause a computing system to perform functions comprising:
- determining an asynchronous flight pattern for two or more aerial vehicles coupled to a ground station, wherein the asynchronous flight pattern comprises a respective flight path for each of the two or more aerial vehicles, and wherein the ground station is coupled to a common shared ground power unit;
- and
- operating each of the aerial vehicles in a crosswind flight substantially along its respective flight path, wherein each aerial vehicle generates electrical energy over time in a periodic profile, and wherein the profile of each aerial vehicle is out of phase with respect to each profile of the other aerial vehicles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.