Autonomous Transition to Hover

Makani Power is developing a new type of wind turbine, capable of reaching the stronger and more consistent winds above the reach of conventional wind systems. Wing 7 is a 20 kW rated Airborne Wind Turbine (AWT) with a wingspan of eight meters and a mass of 58.4 kg. Wing 7 has been developed with the support of the Department of Energy, office of ARPA-E, and Google.

In this September 1, 2011 flight, the AWT can be seen autonomously transitioning from hover into crosswind flight, flying crosswind to generate power and transitioning out of crosswind back into hover.

Following this flight, Makani demonstrated launching and landing from a perch to hover, validating all of the flight modes needed for complete autonomous operation.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Milestone
• awt
• airborne wind turbine
• makani
• energy
• renewable
• wind power