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.

• WEC Co-Design
• SWEPT Lab
• WEC Design Optimization

• 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

(full listing available on ResearchGate)

• 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.
• G. Coe, G. Bacelli, D. Patterson, and D. G. Wilson, “Advanced WEC Dynamics & Controls FY16 testing report,” (Albuquerque, NM: Sandia National Laboratories,  SAND2016-10094, Oct. 2016).