Design and Development of a Measurement System to Track the Motion of a Point Absorber

Abstract: Because of climate change renewable energy field is becoming more and more relevant. Renewable energy can be gained from the sun, from wind but also from ocean waves. To support the research and development in this field reliably measured wave data is collected through a measurement system that shows the exact position of a buoy. The project consists of the design, development and implementation of such a measurement system. It is divided into three subtasks: The power supply based on a solar panel and a battery The measurement part including a sensor and its implementation to the circuit The deployment of a module for data transmission and communication between the measurement system and the on-shore computer The power supply is capable to power the system and to maintain the battery voltage. A suggested stronger power supply will be used in a later state of the project to increase the reliability. The results of the charging test are good. The power supply system is connected to the circuit and the battery charges. For the measurement system the altitude and heading reference system (AHRS) “Ellipse2-D” from SBG Systems has been selected and connected to an Arduino Mega 2560. The AHRS provides raw data and values processed by a Kalman filter. Both data sets are picked up by the microcontroller. The raw data is backed up on a secure digital memory card (SD-card). For the evaluation of the sensor unit, static and dynamic tests are applied to the sensor. In the end it can be seen that the measurement series are aligned with each other. The information from the Kalman model of the AHRS is transmitted with the Adeunis ARF868 ultra-long range (ULR) modem. The transmitter is linked to the Arduino Mega 2560 and the sensor data is transmitted to the receiver. The first field test already shows the reliability of the system for a range of about 3 km. The results of the tests are as expected and in the future this system will be implemented on a buoy.