Visual motion tracking and sensor fusion for kite power systems

Hesse, H. , Polzin, M., Wood, T. A. and Smith, R. S. (2018) Visual motion tracking and sensor fusion for kite power systems. In: Schmehl, R. (ed.) Airborne Wind Energy. Series: Green energy and technology. Springer, pp. 413-438. ISBN 9789811019463 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-10-1947-0_17)

Abstract

An estimation approach is presented for kite power systems with groundbased actuation and generation. Line-based estimation of the kite state, including position and heading, limits the achievable cycle efficiency of such airborne wind energy systems due to significant estimation delay and line sag. We propose a filtering scheme to fuse onboard inertial measurements with ground-based line data for ground-based systems in pumping operation. Estimates are computed using an extended Kalman filtering scheme with a sensor-driven kinematic process model which propagates and corrects for inertial sensor biases. We further propose a visual motion tracking approach to extract estimates of the kite position from ground-based video streams. The approach combines accurate object detection with fast motion tracking to ensure long-term object tracking in real time. We present experimental results of the visual motion tracking and inertial sensor fusion on a ground-based kite power system in pumping operation and compare both methods to an existing estimation scheme based on line measurements.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Hesse, Dr Henrik
• Authors: Hesse, H., Polzin, M., Wood, T. A., and Smith, R. S.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Autonomous Systems and Connectivity
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 1865-3529
• ISBN: 9789811019463
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy