A programmable mooring controller for tank testing of scaled wave energy converters

Ocean wave energy can be a promising contributor to the renewable generation portfolio for coastal communities. Developing economically feasible wave energy converters requires thorough testing of the scaled version of these devices in test tanks. One of the challenges of scaled testing is to accurately represent and model all physical characteristics of the full scale converter. This paper presents the design, construction, and performance of a small-scale active mooring system that can be programmed to accurately emulate common mooring configurations for wave energy converters. This allows for a flexible, accurate, and cost effective system to test mooring designs and their effects on overall performance and behavior of the wave energy converters in small-scale testing. With this system mooring characteristics can be changed on the fly without the need for any hardware changes. This allows quick validation of various mooring designs without increased cost in equipment and tank time.