A Small-Scale Prototype to Study the Takeoff of Tethered Rigid Aircrafts for Airborne Wind Energy

The design of a prototype to carry out takeoff and flight tests with tethered aircrafts is presented. The system features a ground station equipped with a winch and a linear motion system. The motion of these two components is regulated by an automatic control system, whose goal is to accelerate a tethered aircraft to takeoff speed using the linear motion system, while reeling out the tether from the winch with low pulling force and avoiding entanglement. The mechanical, electrical, measurement, and control aspects of the prototype are described in detail. Experimental results with a manually piloted aircraft are presented, showing a good match with previous theoretical findings.