Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation for the Proposed Slider-Crank Wave Energy Conversion Device

In this work, a novel model of a wave energy converter that utilizes a slider crank power take-off system (PTOS) is simulated in a hardware-in-the-loop framework. The simulated parts in this framework include a buoy, slider crank linkage, and a gearbox. The slider crank linkage acting as the linear to rotary converter is represented by a DC motor coupled with a physical generator. With a regular sinusoidal wave excitation force in simulation, the hydrodynamic forces are converted into a torque, emulated by a physical motor that is directly coupled with another identical physical DC machine as the generator. By utilizing the dSPACE Control Desk software and the associated dSPACE hardware, the control algorithm in the device uses a power electronics board to drive the machines. The results show that the control system applied to the hardware-in-the-loop framework can successfully extract energy for a scaled down version of the proposed WEC device.