Lidar-assisted control

As a wind turbine OEM, you’re constantly seeking ways to innovate and stay ahead. Our engineering services are specifically tailored to support your technology roadmap, helping you seamlessly introduce new technologies into your portfolio while minimizing the risk of failure during the integration process. We firmly believe that the future of wind energy is digital, and advanced sensors like lidar systems will play a pivotal role in the wind turbines of tomorrow. By embracing the global trend towards adaptive and adjustable systems, your smart wind turbines will leverage additional sensors, advanced software, and cutting-edge controllers to unlock new levels of performance.

We’re here to guide you through every step of this journey, starting with the initial investigation of new technologies all the way through to certification support and enhancing control performance. Our key services include:

• Feasibility Studies: Understand the potential and practicalities of the new technology for your specific needs.
• Cost-Benefit Analysis of Lidar-Assisted Control: Quantify the financial advantages of integrating lidar for improved control.
• Simulation Studies: Model and predict the impact of the use of lidar for your turbine’s performance.
• Design of Lidar-Assisted Controllers: Develop advanced controllers specifically to address fatigue and/or extreme loads.
• Optimization of operation: A key element is to optimize the operation by adjusting feedback control and operational strategy to leverage best the preview information a lidar system can provide.
• Support in Field Testing: When you’re ready to put your Lidar-Assisted Control (LAC) to the test, you want to ensure a smooth, successful, and valid field campaign. That’s where we come in. We’ll accompany you throughout the entire field testing phase of your LAC system, helping you achieve your testing objectives and significantly reduce the risk of costly failures.
  Our experienced engineers provide comprehensive support across all critical stages of LAC field testing:
  • Planning: Leverage our extensive experience in testing and validating lidar-assisted control. We’re your ideal partner in planning every detail, from the measurement campaign setup to defining robust controller testing routines and streamlining the controller deployment process.
  • Implementation: Our engineers can actively support the coding and implementation of your control routines, along with providing crucial assistance in Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) and Software-in-the-Loop (SiL) testing. We can also help with the deployment of your lidar system and seamlessly integrate its signals into your controller.
  • Execution: During the actual test phase, we’ll support you with continuous plausibility checks, provide advanced data analysis tools, and help you adapt your testing protocol on the fly if new needs arise.
  • Analysis: Finally, we perform in-depth data analysis and controller validation analyses to definitively verify the functionality and performance of your implemented LAC systems.
• Certification Support: Navigate the complexities of certification to bring your innovations to market faster. We support you sowento supports its clients in the certification process of lidar-assisted control. Being in continuous interaction with certification bodies, the team of sowento knows both sides, the engineering and the certification and bridge the gap between them. 
  Main activities for clients can be:
  • Independent simulation study to verify results.
  • Providing of realistic assumptions and failure cases.
  • Verification of realistic lidar simulator.
  • Third party verification and assessment of approach.
• Integrated Design: We help you design your entire wind turbine with lidar-assisted control in mind, optimizing the system from the ground up.

Let us help you confidently embrace the next generation of wind turbine technology.