Abstract
This paper presents the calibration of a high-fidelity Power Take-Off (PTO) model for Wave Energy Converters (WECs) using experimental data from recent wave tank testing of the WaveBot device at the U.S. Navy’s MASK Basin. The model integrates detailed representations of PTO control, motor dynamics, and inverter behavior, including switching-level simulation of power electronics. By tuning the model parameters, this study demonstrates good agreement between simulated and measured system responses and losses. The experimentally calibrated model serves as a foundation for optimal control design of WECs to maximize PTO efficiency. More specifically, a novel control that enables a time-varying DC bus voltage is proposed, and the simulation results show a $62\%$ reduction in inverter losses, which improves the PTO efficiency by $48.5\%$ compared to an unoptimized PTO architecture.
The poster for this paper at OREC/UMERC 2025 can be found here.