The wind farm is now flying
the wind farm is now flying: tethered kites fly themselves in figure-eights with control algorithms computing hundreds of times a second and pulling 2.5 tons per pass, model predictive control keeps them on track in gusts, and a new patent targets megawatt output.
the turbine is now optional.
Context
Research on tethered kites for airborne wind energy covers model predictive control for autonomous flight in pumping cycles, including a paper on predictive control of kites in tow tests. Patent US8066225 describes crosswind kite power where figure-eight flight patterns let a kite reach speeds far above the wind speed.
A TU Delft paper models a future fixed-wing airborne wind system, noting current systems reach several hundred kilowatts.
Figure-eight flight and model predictive control match the sources. The 2.5 tons per pass, the hundreds-of-times-per-second computing and the new megawatt patent were not seen in the excerpts read, so unsupported here, not refuted. The sources read are older research and a patent.
'the turbine is now optional' is the author's opinion.
Related work
- arXiv: Predictive Control of Autonomous Kites in Tow Test Experiments ↗MPC for kites.
- arXiv: Flight control of tethered kites in autonomous pumping cycles ↗Pumping cycle control.
- Google Patents: US8066225 multi-tether cross-wind kite power ↗Figure-eight patent.
Watch next
- Find the recent megawatt kite patent.
Sources
- arXiv 1703.07025ar5iv.labs.arxiv.org
- arXiv 1409.3083ar5iv.labs.arxiv.org
- TU Delft airborne wind energy paperpure.tudelft.nl
Provenance
The note above is reproduced unedited from the original post, first published on Threads on 3 October 2026 at 07:18 IST. Sources are the papers and datasets the note draws on.
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