Sliding mode control for heaving wave energy converter

This paper considers sliding mode controller (SMC) for heaving wave energy converter (WEC). The proposed SMC is implemented to maximize the absorbed energy of the heaving WEC. The problem of chattering control force is solved via the approximation method using the saturation function. The proposed method is tested using polychromatic sea state to simulate the real sea environment. A large difference in energy absorption is resulted using the proposed method compare to a freely motion of heaving WEC. The proposed method maintains the excursion of the buoy within the acceptable limit. The proposed method can maintain the maximum energy absorption despite the presence of uncertainty in its model parameter.