The Integrated Marine Point Absorber Control Tool (IMPACT) project developed software tools to enhance and accelerate the design and implementation of advanced control systems for point absorber type wave energy converters (WECs). By doing so, the cost of designing a WEC will be reduced as control can be factored in early in the design process, informing all key / coupled subsystems such as the mechanical and electrical componentry, in opposition to a decoupled approach where control is introduced at latter stages of development.

By using a common controller design tool and software implementation, common lessons can be more readily learnt, development costs can be reduced and key performance, reliability and survivability features improved, contributing to a significant reduction in the levelised cost of energy.

Sguur Control presented a poster on their Stage 1 Control Systems project at the 2017 WES Annual Conference. All Stage 1 Control System posters are available to download here.