WinchControllers

Documentation for the package WinchControllers.

This package is part of Julia Kite Power Tools, which consist of the following packages:

Julia Kite Power Tools

Goals of this package

The goal of this package is to provide controllers for winches that consist of a motor/generator connected to a drum (with or without gearbox). On the drum is a tether that is connected to a load or a kite. Currently operation in air is assumed, but the package could also be extended for winches connected to under-water cables. While the main use case of the author are airborne wind energy systems, I am open to add features needed for other use cases.

Implemented features:

lower force control (assure that there is always a minimal cable tension)
upper force control (keep the maximal force limited)
reel-out speed control proportional to the square root of the force (other relationships can easily be added)
control of asynchronous motors/ generators
speed control

Planned features

support of torque controlled winches
length control (position control)
integration of a quasi-steady tether model
auto-tuning of the controller

Installation

Install Julia 1.10 or later, if you haven't already. On Linux, make sure that Python3 and Matplotlib are installed:

sudo apt install python3-matplotlib

Before installing this software it is suggested to create a new project, for example like this:

mkdir test
cd test
julia --project="."

Then add WinchControllers from Julia's package manager, by typing:

using Pkg
pkg"add WinchControllers"

at the Julia prompt. You can run the unit tests with the command (careful, can take 60 min):

pkg"test WinchControllers"

Provides

a set of generic control components, see Generic Components
a winch controller WinchController, that limits the upper and lower force and controls the speed as function of the force
a winch controller settings struct WCSettings for the settings
Utility Functions and Macros

WinchControllers

Goals of this package

Installation

Provides

See also