This presentation outlines the current state of research on kites and planned developments for 2010/11.

For his MSc research, Edwin Terink has derived a rigid-body model of a kiteplane using Lagrangian mechanics and taking into account a detailed discretization of aerodynamic forces and moments. In his presentation he will discuss the stability regimes of tethered flight, the impact of design parameters and the application as a virtual design tool for power generation cycles of a Laddermill system.

The MSc research of Stefan de Groot is based on a rigid-body model of an arc-shaped surf kite on a straight cable. Aerodynamic forces and moments are incorporated in the nonlinear model by means of stability derivatives which are extracted from high-fidelity simulations of kite flight or from experimental data. The objective is to employ this model for nonlinear controller design.

Jeroen Breukels is PhD researcher at ASSET. He is the original developer of the Kite Simulation Toolbox, which is a high-fidelity virtual design and simulation environment based on a comprehensive multibody model of the kite power system employing a detailed discretization of the aerodynamic load distribution.

Working as project manager of the Laddermill Ship, Aart de Wachter will present an advanced aerodynamic analysis of a ram-air wing used for kite power generation and propulsion. The analysis uses as a starting point deployed wing-shapes derived by photogrammetry.

Barend Lubbers is researcher at ASSET and responsible for development of flight control systems and required measurement techniques. He will present the current status of on-board measurements for development of automatic flight controllers.