Real-Time Optimization for Kites

Over the past decade, a large number of academics and start-ups have devoted them- selves to developing kites, or airplanes on tethers, as a renewable energy source. Determining the trajectories the kite should follow is a modeling and optimization challenge. We present a dynamic model and analyse how uncertainty affects the resulting optimization problem. We show how measurements can be used to rapidly correct the model-based optimal trajectories in real time. This novel real-time optimization approach does not rely on intensive online computation. Rather, it uses knowledge of the structure of the optimal solution, which can be studied offline.