Sandia Energy > Programs > Renewable Energy > Water Power > Projects > Advanced WEC Dynamics and Controls Bode plot of the hydrodynamic admittance of the FOSWEC v2 aft flap. Click the diagram to open full-size image in a new tab. Numerous studies have shown that advanced control of a wave energy converter (WEC) power take off (PTO) can provide significant increases (on the order of 200-300%) in WEC energy absorption. These increases can in turn lead to reductions in levelized cost of energy (LCOE), both through the increases in energy generation, but also by decreasing loading. Sandia’s Advanced WEC Dynamics and Controls project focuses on transitioning control design approaches from simplified paper studies to application in full-scale devices. By leveraging a wide range of dynamics and controls, robotics, modeling, and testing expertise, this project has delivered on this goal, producing broad dissemination products (webinars, workshops, journal and conference papers, and open-source data sets) and direct benefit to individual WEC developers through numerous industry collaboration projects. Related Projects WEC Co-Design SWEPT Lab WEC Design Optimization Open-Source Data Sets MASK1 Open loop testing for system identification; see SAND2016-10094 MASK2 Closed loop testing; see SAND2018-12858 MASK3 Closed loop multi-DOF testing with auto-tuning Related Publications Bacelli, S. J. Spencer, D. Patterson, R. G. Coe, “Wave Tank and Bench-Top Control Testing of a Wave Energy Converter,” Applied Ocean Research, 86, (2019): 351-366, 2019. Bacelli, V. Nevarez, R. G. Coe, D. Wilson, “Feedback Resonating Control for a Wave Energy Converter,” IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, (2019). Cho, G. Bacelli, R. G. Coe, “Model Predictive Control Tuning by Inverse Matching for a Wave Energy Converter,” Energies 12, no. 21 (2019). R. G. Coe, G. Bacelli, S. J. Spencer, H. Cho, “Initial results from wave tank test of closed-loop WEC control,” (Albuquerque, NM: Sandia National Laboratories, SAND2018-12858, Nov. 2018). R. G. Coe, G. Bacelli, H. Cho, V Nevarez, F. Wilches-Bernal, “A comparative study on wave prediction for WECs,” (Albuquerque, NM: Sandia National Laboratories, SAND2018-10945, Sept. 2018). Bacelli, R. G. Coe, D. Patterson, and D. Wilson, “System Identification of a Heaving Point Absorber: Design of Experiment and Device Modeling,” Energies, 10, no. 10 (2017): 472. R. G. Coe, G. Bacelli, D. G. Wilson, O. Abdelkhalik, U. A. Korde, R. D. Robinett III, “A comparison of WEC control strategies,” International Journal of Marine Energy, 20, (2017) 45-63. R. G. Coe, G. Bacelli, D. Patterson, and D. G. Wilson, “Advanced WEC Dynamics & ControlsFY16 Testing Report,” (Albuquerque, NM: Sandia National Laboratories, SAND2016-10094, Oct. 2016). A full list of publications is available at ResearchGate. Videos Contact Ryan Coe rcoe@sandia.gov (505) 845-9064