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The Wing Borne Hydrofoil (WBHF) is an innovative high-performance yacht designed by Stephen Bourn and patented in six countries. This craft has the potential to break the current yacht speed record and exceed 50 knots. More information can be found at www.wingbornehydrofoil.com.
The dynamics of this craft differ significantly from those of conventional yachts given its articulated, flexible and high speed design. It incorporates elements of multi-body dynamics, aerodynamics/hydrodynamics and flexibility that are often researched, but seldom together in this context. In particular the wing has been designed to be highly flexible, enabling it to ‘warp’, creating a lift gradient across the wing which is used to control its roll. This aero-elasticity of the wing is often researched in a static sense, where wing deflection is a function of airspeed, and dynamic deflection (or wing flutter) is seen as undesirable and engineered out of an aircraft. The modelling and subsequent control of this wing which is structurally different from conventional wing designs will be researched.
All of the dynamics mentioned are fast and hence the craft is hard to control without the use of a control system or at least servo loops. Currently models of the WBHF use servo loops to control the orientation of the wing. These servo loops use a simple linear PID controller. The aim of the research is to investigate the application of modern (time-based, often associated with Multiple Input, Multiple Output [MIMO] designs) control techniques to control the craft as a whole, leading to improved performance. Furthermore the aero-elasticity, aerodynamic/hydrodynamic and multi-body dynamics are highly non-linear, thus the non-linear and adaptive control techniques that are seldom used in industry due to technological lag will be researched.
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