Catamaran Based Two-Body Point Absorber Wave Energy Converter with Rope Driving Power Takeoff Design, Modelling, and Proof-of-Concept

This paper presents a two-body Catamaran-Based Point Absorber Wave Energy Converter (CPAWEC) concept with a concise and durable rope-driving power take-off (PTO) system, which is designed to be a self-sustained unmanned surface vehicle powered by ocean energy. This system absorbs energy from the relative motion between the floating first body and the submerging second body via rope and spool mechanism-based PTO. The dynamic models for both the PTO and the overall CPAWEC were derived, simulated, and validated through dry lab testing and wave tank testing under regular wave conditions, respectively. Further studies on drag damping, multi degrees of freedom, generator efficiency, and detailed investigations of the rope driving PTO will be conducted in future research.