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CEAS EuroGNC 2026

Hardware in the Loop Experimental Validation of a Path Controller for Airborne Wind Energy Systems
Jorge González-García Department of Aerospace Engineering, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Avenida de la Universidad 30, 28911 Leganés (Madrid), Spain.
Francisco DeLosRíos-Navarrete Department of Aerospace Engineering, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Avenida de la Universidad 30, 28911 Leganés (Madrid), Spain. CT Ingenieros A.A.I. S.L. Avenida Leonardo Da Vinci 22, 28050 Getafe (Madrid), Spain.
David Santos-Martín Department of Electrical Engineering, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Avenida de la Universidad 30, 28911 Leganés (Madrid), Spain.
Gonzalo Sánchez-Arriaga Department of Aerospace Engineering, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Avenida de la Universidad 30, 28911 Leganés (Madrid), Spain.
Abstract:
Airborne Wind Energy (AWE) systems require reliable control architectures to achieve autonomous and repeatable flight under realistic operating conditions. To support controller development while reducing the cost and risk associated with field experiments, a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) platform for closed-loop validation of external flight controllers is presented. The proposed setup combines a high-fidelity kite dynamics model executed in real time, with a Ground Control Unit (GCU), wireless communication modules, and physical actuators. The platform is assessed in terms of computational performance, communication latency, and path-following capability. The results show that the proposed HIL setup sustains real-time operation and enables stable closed-loop tracking of ten figure-eight trajectories, providing a practical intermediate validation stage between offline simulation and flight testing.
Keywords: Airborne Wind Energy; Hardware in the loop; Real-time; Control
 View PDF CEAS-GNC-2026-063 doi: 10.82124/CEAS-GNC-2026-063


Jorge González-García, Francisco DeLosRíos-Navarrete, David Santos-Martín, Gonzalo Sánchez-Arriaga: Hardware in the Loop Experimental Validation of a Path Controller for Airborne Wind Energy Systems. Proceedings of the 2026 CEAS EuroGNC conference. Madrid, Spain. May 2026. doi: 10.82124/CEAS-GNC-2026-063.
BibTeX entry (UTF-8):

@Incollection{CEAS-GNC-2026-063,
    author = {González-García, Jorge and DeLosRíos-Navarrete, Francisco and Santos-Martín, David and Sánchez-Arriaga, Gonzalo},
    title = {Hardware in the Loop Experimental Validation of a Path Controller for Airborne Wind Energy Systems},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 {CEAS EuroGNC} conference},
    address = {Madrid, Spain},
    month = may,
    year = {2026},
    doi = {10.82124/CEAS-GNC-2026-063}
}