Dana Salar: Industrial robot as main equipment for testing and production of Wave Energy Converters

Abstract

Since 2001, research and development on the conversion of ocean wave energy into electricity has been conducted at the Division of Electricity at Uppsala University. Different Wave Energy Converter (WEC) technologies has been developed, such as the point-absorber linear Uppsala University WEC (UU-WEC) and the Low-RPM Torque Converter WEC (LRTC-WEC). 

This thesis focuses primarily on the development of a robotized dry test rig, to facilitate assessment of different WEC technologies in house. An existing industrial six degrees of freedom robot system is used to emulate buoy movement on the sea surface, with regard to the impact of hydrodynamic forces in real time. Two different methods for integrating a hydrodynamic model to the robot controller are presented: the force control and the position control methods. Both methods are evaluated and validated across various regular and irregular wave climates, as well as for different theoretical buoy shapes.  

The secondary focus in this thesis is the development of robotized production methods for the UU-WEC. The surface mounting of Neodymium Iron Boron (Nd2Fe14B) magnets and the cutting of rubber discs are investigated, resulting in viable solutions that include development and validation of robot tooling and robot cell proposals. 

A smaller segment of the thesis examines the use of robotics in teaching a course for bachelor engineering students. At the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic a challenging task was imposed: a swift shift to online distant education. A major task was to replace physical lab exercises with video recordings, detailed instructions and simulated laboratory environments. The results indicated that the upgraded online education successfully meet the course objectives.

The final part of the thesis investigates the use of WECs for powering a desalination plant. Desalination presents a viable solution for islands or coastal regions deficient in freshwater resources, but is also an energy intensive process. Practical experiment evaluated the possibility of utilizing the UU-WEC as power source for desalination plants.