Kitekraft Flying Wind Turbine Demonstrator Autonomous Test Flight on 13 January 2022 (Uncut)

00:00 - Intro.
00:08 - 1. Lift-off at –60° azimuth.
00:21 - 2. Transition into figure-8.
00:28 - 3. Fly figure-8 (power generation).
02:27 - 4. Transition out of figure-8 at –60° azimuth.
02:34 - 5. Hover down (intermediate landing simulation).
03:09 - 6. Transition into figure-8.
03:17 - 7. Fly figure-8 (power generation).
05:20 - 8. Transition out of figure-8 at +60° azimuth.
05:26 - 9. Hover down to 0° azimuth & prepare touch-down.
06:30 - 10. Touch-down.

Kite size: 2.4m wingspan (1:4 scale).

Location: Otterfing near Munich, Germany

Date & time: 13 January 2022, around 3 pm.

Wind speed: 1…3m/s from east. (This is below the cut-in wind speed and thus too little for net-positive power generation. A product-version kite would remain on ground and wait for stronger wind.)

Peak positive power: 4.2 kW (at kite in 800V DC tether).

Name of kite: SN7 "Lucky"

Additional explanation for this test flight:
* Apart from giving high-level "launch" and "land" commands, the flight was controlled autonomously by the kite's control software.
* Purpose of test flight: gather data for validation of software updates regarding the control algorithms in all flight maneuvers.
* More than 2,000 data points are gathered every 25ms (40x per second, 80,000 data points per second) for analysis and optimization.
* 0° azimuth means downwind direction.
* The flown figure-8 pattern slightly shifts left and right as well as up and down due to not-yet-optimized controller tuning and as a result of conservative safety parameters.
* Upcoming implementations include a ground station, with which the kite and tether remain always above the ground. The kite then never starts from or lands on the ground, but instead uses the ground station as docking station/landing pad.

For more information and technology explanations, visit https://www.kitekraft.de/

Music credits: Infraction - No Copyright Music,    • Epic Inspirational Hip-Hop by Infract...   and    • Epic Dramatic Orchestra by Infraction...