EAGER: Integrating efficient and dependable wave power generation into ocean sensing buoys: at-sea pilot tests.

小型海洋浮标能够对与地球气候相关的海洋特性和其他自然现象密切相关的海洋特性进行一系列长期的原位测量。目前，这种浮标依靠太阳能电池板、风力涡轮机和电池来提供仪器运行所需的能量。这些研究人员计划进行试点测试，以评估一种可靠的新技术，利用周围的海浪提供比现有来源更大的电量。海洋科学和工程社区应该对长期运行大功率仪器的可靠的更大功率的可用性感兴趣。此外，该项目的方法和数据也有望转移到为自动驾驶汽车设计的海上充电小型平台上。这项研究计划测试一种控制波浪能量转换过程的新技术，以便在变化的不规则波浪条件下转换最大的实际功率量。该团队通过详细的流体动力学模拟和波浪箱测试了解到，在现实的海况下，力和运动约束阻抗匹配控制可以使时间平均功率增加4-5倍，而小型海洋浮标可能会转换。通过适当的硬件添加，这种改进可以使标准的海洋浮标使用波浪能作为动力源。然而，所提出的控制需要实时的上行波表面高程测量，以确定未来20-30秒的波剖面预测，以及能够提供大力量的双向功率输出。为此，试点研究将使用一个全仪器化的、目前正在运行的波浪能转换浮标，该浮标带有双向电液动力起飞装置，通过对浮标振荡进行约束的最佳实时随机控制，量化可能的性能改进（超过基线电阻控制）。该团队将使用设备上的高分辨率、近程雷达来推断（上行波）入射波场，以确定设备上的波剖面预测。研究结果将有助于评估海浪能相对于海洋传感浮标可用的其他能源（如太阳能、风能、燃料电池、电池和柴油发电机）的直接优点。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Small oceanographic buoys enable a range of long-term in-situ measurements of ocean properties that are closely related to the earth's climate-related and other natural phenomena. Currently, such buoys rely on solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries for the energy they need for instrument operation. These researchers plan to conduct pilot tests to evaluate a new technique dependably to utilize ambient ocean waves to provide dramatically greater power amounts than existing sources. Dependable availability of larger power amounts to operate high-power instruments for long periods should be of interest the Ocean Science and Engineering communities. Additionally, the methods and data from this project are also expected to be transferable to small platforms designed for mid-ocean recharging of autonomous vehicles. This research plans to test a new technique to control the wave energy conversion process such that the maximum practical power amounts can be converted in changing, irregular wave conditions. The team has learned through detailed hydrodynamic simulations and wave-tank testing that force and motion-constrained impedance matching control in realistic sea states can enable a 4-5 fold increase in the time-averaged power amounts that small oceanographic buoys might otherwise convert. With modest hardware additions, this improvement could allow standard oceanographic buoys to use wave energy as a power source. However, the proposed control requires real-time up-wave surface elevation measurements for deterministic wave-profile prediction 20-30 seconds into the future, and a bi-directional power take-off capable of providing large forces. To that end, the pilot study will use a fully-instrumented, currently operational wave-energy converter buoy with a bi-directional electro-hydraulic power take-off, to quantify the performance improvements possible (over baseline resistive control) with constrained optimal acausal real-time wave-by-wave control of the buoy oscillations. The team will use a high-resolution, short-range radar on-board the device to infer (up-wave) incoming wave fields for deterministic wave-profile prediction at the device. Results will enable an evaluation of the immediate merit of wave energy relative to other power sources available for ocean sensing buoys, such as solar, wind, fuel cells, batteries, and diesel generators.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.