comment to: santos137@yahoo.com

Findings from 2007-08 KiteLab-on-the-Pacific experiments

Kite-energy based on sweep efficiencies does not require complex piloting. Even chaotically surging elements can be kept aloft with stable pilot kites, lifter arches, towers, & terrain.

Harmonic Flipper-Wing Arrays in Resonant Synchrony are state-of-the-art as of New Year's 2009.

Simple methods effectively transmit mechanical kite power to ground-based work-cells .

Modularizing kite functions into atomic units, "pattern language", allows rapid evolution of novel kite-systems. KiteLab splits down the application into modules, a vocabulary of quazi-stand-alone parts:lifter elements, power elements, payload elements, tether elements, ground-based work-cells, etc.. As the modular systems mature they become integrated.

Beyond the 1000sq m scale, massed elements are more practical operationally than overgrown mega-kites. (A hobbyist accidentally pulled up a fire hydrant with just a train of small kites deployed from a cardboard box.)

A kite is best stabilized by passive actuation force developed from the wind-shift (like tails or snow-plow stabilty). Especially giant kites need these methods to minimize problematic electro-mechanics. Ultralight low-power (slow but strong) fine-trim actuation is useflul to shift a kite to a favored side of the kite-window, balance the kite, or otherwise set the kite for conditions.

The Betz Limit of a kite field is most closely approached by arched arrays , not single-point systems. Barrage kite & balloon arrays are good models.

KiteFields have complex requirements. Its an anchor field ruled by economics. Belaying flying elements around the field is a basic technique to avoid massive carousels/turrets/railways/etc. Indented facilities & faired cages allow sweeping lines to cross overhead. In a major kitefield power must be collected & aggregated from numerous "small" aero-elastic cells into major work-cells like the most massive generators

Reference standards & components of standard design provide sound evaluation baselines . Matched kite-systems flown at the same time, for extended periods in varied conditions, allow small differences in sub-components to be sensitively compared. Put tunability everywhere in prototypes & simply dial-in sweetness.

Museum & foundation collections, of Asian-Pacific kites & kiting documents in particular, provide key clues to study. The world's great living kite designers/makers/flyers are critical to research. Many new patents will fail as prior art emerges.

Kite piloting, even with aux. autopilots, is currently labor-intensive; skilled jobs that include constant routine "sail changes" to maximise kite/pilot productiivity. Hot-swapping kite elements is essential. Only a quiver of kites spans conditions. There is no all-in-one kite, a reasonable solution is a lean quiver of wide-range elements.

Kite schemes are usefully ranked by what problems thay avoid. All kite schemes work to some extent, as the basic concept is powerful, but all have flaws & too many flaws is fatal . Schemes like like inflatables have shorter life & extra fuss. Adding failure points to a spec is poison. Helium dependence works against cost-effectiveness . Relying on aerospace tech, fancy net-links, etc. is problematic.

Self-relauching kites will be a key to cheap high duty-cycle systems. Morse Sleds have the best relaunch of scalable kites. One advantage of ground-surface boundary-layer turbuence is that Vortical Filaments periodically pick up a self-relaunchable kite.

A kite's lifespan is flight-hours. Not all flight hours are equal, damage accumulates rapidly bright sun & overpowered winds. Properly stored kites stop the clock on UV & flapping wear. Like old time fishing net sheds, kite farms require shelter, kite lofts, to dry out & repair kites extends useful life. Microbal solvents attack even modern polymers. Rinsing salt out of marine kites extends life.

Modular COTS meets most Airboirne-Energy requirements. COTS thinking suggests, for example, that KiteShip's giant traction kite might be piloted by SkySails remotely operated kite system. These may be complimentary rather than competing technologies. Fishing, cableway logging, etc.. are all COTs fields ready for kite repurposing.

Wind fields are much more complex than previously understood but follow useful rules described by chaotic dynamics. Viva la revolution- new comprehension of the wind-field a kite operates in. Natural wind is animal-like

KiteLab's focus is identifing the simplest, cheapest, & most robust kite engines . Decades of global research robotics & UAV development have shown flukey brittle performance. Conditions like salt-water, iceing, & peak-turbulence will bedevil overly complex kite systems.

KiteLab uses cheap children's kites for basic work. Fishing tackle & bike parts are a near-universal mechanical experimentation language. COTS scaling follows a drive-train scaling spectrum across automotive, trucking, & industrial equipment. Old sporting equipment is a fine wind-mechanical interface, precisely at the human scale. Excersise equipment designed to work the whole body, with little modificaton, becomes work-cells. Its as if ghosts took over a gym to see the cells moving by invisible power.

KiteLab Methodologies

Extended Dimensionless-Analysis- Reynolds Numbers are dimensionless, allowing confidence in scaling predictions between viscosity & structural limits. In KiteLab's work it became clear that dimensionless analysis also applies to time, funding, & staffing of research.

Obliged to work at a small scales, KiteLab found its design & experimental cycles where highly accelerated compared to, say, [a kite-energy player rhyming w/ back-acne], which boasted it could email a CAD file to China & get a prototype expressed back in 2-4 days, whereas KiteLab often does a novel kite concept in minutes or an hour or two. Several experiments a day is the norm.

Back-Acne had 10 million bucks, KiteLab had 10 thousand (rounded #s), three orders-of-mag difference. More crudely, their kites spanned the 100 sq. meter range, KiteLab ruled the 1 sq. meter world (two orders diff). They had 30 employees, KiteLab was one guy helped by many great kitemasters/volunteers/advisers, so in dimensionless-staff terms it was surprisingly advantaged.

A key to rapid progress was developing good experimental method . A leading kitemaster was aghast at my filthy habit of making numerous simultaneous changes to a design & then expecting results to sift out of by some inner voodoo Fourier Transform, which served me well enough before. His method was one change at a time, which gradually gave certain results.

Heeding "Yoda"'s critique, but not wanting to slow down, KiteLab developed a protocol of using matched kite elements, making a change to one, & directly comparing performance in a fly-off format (later i would even change one side of a symmetrical kite & its lopsided response indicated a result).

Direct fly-off was a major tool to compare disparate complex solutions, leading to the development of a large kite-arch with halyards where varied components are run up, compared/evaluated, & run down, in record time. Tuning & debugging goes very fast. A dozen or so ground-based work-cells compare electrical generation, pumping air/water, traction, & other applications.

KiteLabs location at the mouth of the Colunbia River (Ilwaco, WA) is a decisive advantage, a virtual Fermi Lab of fluidic environments, perhaps the best such place in the world. Its paradise compared to other kite research areas, with exceptional quality-of-life. Nearby is the World Kite Museum, whose collection & library is a major asset no other development project has had (much kite knowledge is not online).

The use of salvage to make prototyes was important, COTS from birth. Ilwaco is a heritage fishing port & the highly perfected language of commercial & sport fishing is ready-made for kite application into the 100kw ranges. The local logging tradition used steam-donkeys & aerial-cableways to move massive logs out of otherwise impossible terrrain, another fine example for scaled-up kite-energy (kite-donkey).

These advantages & methods led to rapid progress; KiteLab was able to offer an advanced first-to-market kite energy product in '08 (Sputnik Flipper-Wings) while Makani was predicting five years of wait-&-see (dimensionless-time). KiteLab is scaling-up with confidence, almost overnight.

The world's-first Flying Wind-Farm continues as an open research tool to compare & validate major published concepts. In the rush to create open-source knowledge KiteLab cut corners in documentation & left many alleys unexplored. Its still not clear which leading kite-energy concept is the ultimate winner, they all work, only that the flipper wing was so elegant (~six parts), while the superb airborne-turbine was much more complex & expensive (~200 parts).

dave santos

KiteLab

Ilwaco, WA

Austin, TX

Misc. Ideas

It will be practical to recharge vehicles in special places & applications with pilotless low-tech kite systems, as simply as direct-driving the (jacked-up) regenerative-braking wheels with the lightweight/compact-stowable kite element. One might conduct polar adventures with an electric snowmobile, for example. In certain conditions direct pulling (again w/ regen braking) of the vehicle will be great. When wind slacks, motor on.

On another front consider Coal-to-Kite. Find dirty old coal plants located in depleted strip-mined wasteland, idle the coal-to-steam turbines, opportunistically, as wind blows, by running a kite-farm over the ravaged (hopefully recovering) landscape. Direct drive already capitalized/installed generators with high-speed cableways into the plant, (for fine-tuning 60Hz AC synchronous grid delivery, perhaps using aux. H2 generation as load buffering loop where gas can be blended with coal combustion or compressed-air motor; excess wind powers compression buffer a-la General Compression Corp)

Kite Integrated Air-Traffic-Control

Proposed-

Kites must meet every ATC standard & become a normal part of air traffic.

Kite systems must be as visible as towers, with suitable markers & strobes. Multicolors are culturally apt signal coloring to distinguish from established signal colors. Kite systems need a combination of luminous refelective, dark, & light elements.

Kites operating in populated or other high-consequence areas must meet special safety & reliability standards (ie. kite-killers, containment-zone, etc.).

Large Energy-Kite Fields, with high element densities, are restricted air-space. Aerostat operations provide a model. Kite array hazard resembles mountains in scope.

Airports will integrate kite operations on site, possibly arched cross-wind high over the preferred runway, in the center of the traffic pattern. Airports represent a logical place for kite operations in densely developed cluttered areas. Ace's (Capt. Guinn) hint- skydiving & ballooning airfields are existence-proof models for integrated operations of kites & conventional aircraft.

Kites must be low risk to birds & other wildlife. Thin lines need ribbon/tuft/etc. markers/relectors every few feet, which might double as line position codes. Looming kites can disturb raptor-nervous wildlife. Hawk kites might scare birds clear of hazards. Migration routes need to be protected from kite obstacles, even grounding kites during migration windows. Kites might even enhance bird-life, serving as waypoint beacons, or even rest stops, as offshore objects do.

Privatizing the sky-resource, climate modification by mining the Jet Stream, & other long-term concerns should be addressed at the founding of the new aviation by strong ethical guidelines.

Kites are going to integrate just fine with ATC, much like mountains are accepted hazards. Initially special sites like aerostat bases, parachuting DZs (DropZone), balloon fields, etc. are models/hosts for our experiments. By simply filing a proper NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) one can fly almost anything well thought out, out of thousands of small FBOs (small airports- FixedBaseOperator). Kite Festivals enjoy ATC acceptance, pilots are glad to adapt to resonable developments. My dad is a retired but current airline pilot, & has only a few technical requirements to raise, but is totally cool with sharing the airspace.

Note: British Kite Regs are the most advanced (due to crowded airspace), a reference model to build on. A lot is possible within current regs (less than five lbs under 200ft >5 mi from major airport)

Hazard to Birds- kites are considered less dangerous to birds than wind towers as-

kites operate higher than most birds fly

kites are more flexible operationally, can be re-deployed around migration/fledging events. Aviation actually gives birds right-of-way if detected. Kites can do similar avoidance.

kites are actually used for bird scaring to displace pesticides (eye spots applied), one concern is to not stress nesting birds with kites, although many birds soon adapt

kite velocity, hardness, & mass less extreme than a turbine blade, birds commonly hit thin fun-kite lines with no harm, large kite lines are avoided

kites are not perch attractive like towers

birds seem to learn, understand, & avoid kites better than they do turbines

Worcester Polytechnic Institute thinks kites are more bird friendly.

Kite System Visibility

Proposed-

that multicolors characterize kite traffic, including night lighting, to differentiate kite operations from fixed towers (red-white) & existing air traffic (red-green-white)

50 ft. interval visual indicators, the fixed-tower standard, be relaxed to 200 feet in exchange for longer-visibility distance warnings on large kite-systems.

A combination of reflective (spinners), black, red-orange, & white elements offers versatile high-visiblity in varied daylight conditions. Strobes offer the best visibility-to-energy-use for night operations.

Radar/optic reflectors must be built into components (aluminized mylar & mesh). Aircraft's own lights & strobes serve for LIDAR, warning of a closing hazard.

Thin lines should have visible mini tufts/ribbons/etc every few feet to allow birds to detect lines at close range. Such indicatiors are required at ground level to alert passer-bys.

Kite Winches

Kite winching must retrieve in any wind; furling & kite-killing are essential for magakites. Winch speed is as useful as winch power; many a crash is preventable by rapid reeling or unreeling. Timely unreeling allows a destabilized kite to right itself, escaping "lock-out". Reel-in capability allows the kite to be flown to its anchor in calm or even head-wind , such as when a kite-ship, to avoid a collision or grounding suddenly powers downwind faster than true wind.

High gear ranges are required in a kite winch to match all conditions. Braking function (drag) of an otherwise freewheeling reel is required for playing out line controlably & holding position. The brake must be variable, slipping controllably in gusts that might otherwise part the line. A regenerative power reel would is the cat's clitoris, eliminating of reducing outside power dependency.

Dipping-booms, flexible rods with fairleads (such as fishing rods) or piston pumps (regeneration), dampen line yanking.

Sport-fishing reels far outperform the primitive hand winders used for fun kites. An exception is Korean kite-fighting reels capable of speeds far beyond fishing gear. Soaring sports, both scale-model & human, have advanced high speed reels. Most industrial winches are geared unsuitably slow, but may be souped-up. Large scale kite reels can be adapted from a wide range of industrial gear- cranes, commercial fishing gear, shipping winches, with customization required.

Bicycle hardware is ideal for creating human scale kite winches for prototypes, appropriate technology, & personal apps. Motorcycle & auto components trace out an upward scale of adaptable winch hardware. Regenerative winches are designed to extract useful energy from a kite. A regenerative electric auto drive-train might work as a self charging kite platform. A whimsical dancing kite flown from bike parts (spring loaded rachet) can do a lot of work. In the future children can gather home energy as a byproduct of kite-play.

On Tails

Its kindergarden kite tech- add tail in wind. Proper birds & airplanes have tails. Such is the inferiority-complex of technical kiting that tails are thought shameful. Still, kites, as wind increases, need tails. Some tail notes-

A current Concept Delta tail is a ram air tube structurally blended (not tethered) into the aft spar. Its underslung venturi cut inlet expands into a long fat body canted up, with a ballast mass in its belly. The belly tapers to a tip, mostly closed to enhance internal pressure, but with a small passage to let out water or sand. It has a very attractive action of flicking its tip, cat like. This "super tail" evolved over five kites until it could out stabilise all others using less material. Its not too long, almost bobed.

Ram-air tubes are partial airbeams that perform better (lighter, shorter, lower drag) than ribbon or fuzzy tails.

Traction power can be developed with drogue along a tail, although hanging a large variable power element below a stable lifter is more powerful & stable. This is because the variable loading off the kite line is felt by the lifter from its balanced bridle point, rather than having its AoA messed up, or being buffeted by drogues shedding vortices.

a laterally flattened tail is benificial, generating some lift, also yaw promoting if fast weathervaning is desired, while yaw thrash dampening.

a twin tail is assisted by surface wind gradient, an effect counterproductive in kite-towing. Twin-tails respond better to veering wind by "snow-plow" stability mechanism.

some kite designs rely on a virtual tail of highly energized vortices by means of holes & fins in the wing-body of the kite.

ballasted tails are counter-productive if the mass swings too much. A ram-air airbeam tube-tail provides aft ballast a firmer lever.

tail with yaw tendency similar to kite body cause harmonic oscillation (amplification). tapered tail dampens oscillation.

Reference tails- 1) graded system of drag & ballast elements 2) soft versions of previous 3) aircraft syle empennage- stiff finned-boom

pendulum weight at window edge best positioned around 4-5 o'clock than 3 as any nose dip countered by increased rather than decreased resistence.

Double Tube-tail has special property- windspeed differential with height pulls the upper tail harder, correcting kite, particularly at window edge.

functions of a tail- AoA trim, yaw amplify or dampen, pendulum stability, traction

drogue tail- weathervanes kite into breeze, dampens short period yaw

trim tail- winged tail operating like airplane empennage

"Snow Plow Stability" weathervanes a kite with less line-axis dampening than tails. A delta kite's floppy wings disorient less in veering gust & dampen without as much tail needed.

Behold, the lowly tail became a kite energy wonder (Kitemotor9).

launch/retrieve methods use to fly large/many kites short-handed.

Hand launching off a pulley anchored (sea or land) upwind (& then pulled to anchor (sea-anchor than "weighed")), pulley also used to "walk-down" large kite from anchor.

Flying WindFarm- setting a large kite-arch with halyards all along it. Kite lifters & turbine elements hot-swap by raising & lowering like flags. (My current arch has five turbine halyards along it, each halyard can carry multiple elements.)

Pilot kite lifts primary kite packed like a parachute, popped at altitude UAV tows kite aloft mobile launching stand

Retrieval

kill lines, fast reel-in kite donkey-winch- kite powers its own reel-in kite retrieval from window-edge

Self-Relaunch

relaunching kites- Morse sled, West Indies kite, chicken hoops/sticks on Deltas

helium pilot kites

Kite Killers

are required on big kites. A GPS alarm bridle cutter will keep a loose kite from ranging amok.

Cut-away one or both sides of a multi-line kite. Cut-away fore or side-leg of a bridle. Cut-away with hook knife.

Routine cut-away best done with sail snap-shackle that releases under load. Fail-safe cut-away shackles used in parachuting.

Ballast Notes

Trim Ballast is the right tool whenever pendulum stability or flight trim is more critical than gross weight/performance

separation of ballast & tail function.

ballast/payload shift as control input proven in hang gliders & parachutes

variable water ballast a powerful technique. Water taken and dumped as desired.

ballast can dampen or amplify kite dynamics.

Variable Ballast, payload shifting, adding & dropping water ballast

use of weight to pull kite nose toward vertical &/or to level wings

separation of traction element which becomes "line junk", a spinnaker-like skyhook.

self limiting trip mechanism depowers traction element (held up & stabilzed by pilotlifter kite)

Variable Drogue power function

Kite-Based Cableways, Skycranes, & Skyelevators

Kites radically enable varied pulling & lifting applications. "Steam Donkeys" were once used to pull giant loads like old-growth logs out of rough terrain. Kite-Donkeys will do the same, powerful winches on heavy sledges or crawlers.

Crane work close to the surface is workable by an A-frame or tripod of line that creates a stable station point to lift against. shifting the tensile triangles gives x-y motion for a z-hook. Play this concept by building tiny towers in a model block-world with toy kites.

Kites can lift payloads to the stratosphere like a mini "space-elevator". Future aviation might rely on kites to raise aircraft, passengers, & cargo to crusing altitudes, by sustainable wind-energy. Aerostatic communities could be served by kite elevators.

On Kite Wings

A lightly loaded wing (sled) effectively operates at lower Reynolds, losing less energy churning wake, higher L/D for "free".

Kites develop various kinds of wing lift, low drag classic bernouli lift, higher drag turbulation/transverse roll bernouli lift, where induced vortices form virtual top wing surfaces, & high drag/high lift pressure lift & high AoA.

Traditional Asian kites & modern aircraft transition combinations of lift mechanisms as conditions vary. Smooth mixing of lift modes dampens out abrupt instabilities, as when one wing is in different air than another.

Turbulator types include strakes, like super low aspect winglets, & dog tooths on leading edges that create vortices that keep flow attached to an upper wing surface.

Transverse taylor rolls are useful as virtual upper wing surface

Newtonian deflection is simply the impact of wind on the underwing aimed downward.

AoA trumps AR as the main power variable in traction kites.

high area under low wing loading is more important than aspect ratio to kite performance in light to moderate conditions,

A lightly loaded wing of low AR outflys a high AR wing better suited for high loading.

The kitemotor 's high AR turbine blades matched to a low AR, low wing loading sled, result in high L/D of the overall system compared to other schemes.

The ultimate high speed kite is perhaps like a ballasted arrow, the shaft stowing a variable UL skin for a wide operational wind range.

A missing sense of drag as an asset, the shame of sporting a tail, is hindering some kite developers. Crawl, then fly..

You have to define your target wind-field.

i used to think that too (start-out-laminar myth), as do most aero folks still, but totally disagree now. turbulence rules, especially for kites, & a great real-sky wing must have compliance, trubulators, eddy flaps, reflex, tuned aeroelasticity,etc., etc., etc.,

"fine-tuned" in laminar in never tuned in diverse natural wind fields (specific kolmorgorov spectrums). why even bother with suboptimal laminar assumption wings (like old NACA), when it just slows down going for better wings...

wings are my passion, these views are not designed to contradict anybody, but are hard-won knowledge. remember when you speced solid alu CNC turbine blades, compare with my bouncable ultra-low mass super-detailed wings (multi foil-sectioned) to see new thinking. Study real bird wings & bird flight, seagulls in storms (100+ mph chaos), i fly with them now...

(exception to laminar "trap" is narrow applications like indoor & ~calm where towing is essential, like towing aloft, & superwings do that too)

Hope you're still with me on wings, just thinking aloud

-yes high speed wings do operate quazi-laminar in apparent wind, but traditional kites dance (buffeted) by natural wind, with ultra-low wing-loading (equals higher L/D !) at ultra-low reynolds, which (mostly) is why they don't have to look like "good" wings,

-note how airliner wings are really several wings in one with many flap (LE & TE) spoiler settings, birds too, real flight is multi-speed, multi-turbulent, multi loaded

-who needs wind tunnels which are deceptive, i've got more varied conditions (around terrain & over time) around Ilwaco than any tunnel or tow regime

-kite-energy maximization requires a changing quiver of kites, no one wing does all.

UAV Kite Tenders, Pilot Kites, "Sky Anchor" Function

Rendevous & docking of Tender Kites can do tasks like adding drogue or ballast & hotswapping components like lines, kites, charged batts., etc.

A pilot kite takes small servo inputs & amplifys them by its own kite pull controlling inputs to a large primary power kite.

Bondestam points out that the wind generally holds up above around 600m during the surface lulls at dawn & dusk, as well as common surface wind weakness at night. So flying a pilot kite in this more reliable wind can support a primary power kite much lower in the flukier wind. Upper wind is also less helical than wind lower in the wind gradient & progressively less affected by surface features (unless convection triggers)

docking ring stations on kite line

Wind fields are full of boundaries best avoided by working kites, let the kite stay before or cross the trubulent boundary.

conceptual basis for "tacking in 3D" refined, based on formal fluid dynamic structures & the new micro-meteorology.

passive semi-stable kite sweep- my sport kite assumed stable figure-eight sweep when the handles were splayed as far apart as arms allowed. Modest variation of the line spread allowed control of frequency & lull/puff playing. Similar sweep set up with traction foil. There is a lock-out risk as these oscillators run, an occaisional strong correction required.

Instrumentation platforms are proposed to determine the best kites, kite fliers, winches, electric propulsion & generation- turbines, robotic paravanes.

Bird-Sled Alison-Scott Derivative, encouraged by David Lang's appreciation for the humble sled.

Object-Oriented Auto-Kite Finite State Machine

Turbulators, Meshilation,

Zanonia/Taylor Roll/Bernouli-Magnus Effects, & such

Sky-Reels- Fish the sky; an old fisherman shows the way.

Specialized Kite-based Vehicles, what a working kite-crawler or kite-trawler would likely consist of.

KytSkool Peak Learning

curriculum based on recent work, proposal in process

Curriculum Deliverables-

Scale Patton Train, KiteMotor How-To,

matched kite experimental method allows rapid engineering development.

cart towing kites indoorsGods' Eye- Wireless USB webcam on kite Mass lifting, electroscopy, kite acoustics (kite phone), data-logging, paravanes, HAPAs, cosmic ray observatory,

The Magic Kite- a blockbuster exhibition covering the global history of kiting to the present.

The World Kite Museum, Drachen Foundation, the Smithsonian, & OMSI are initial contacts to see how this idea flys.

The Toy - A major exhibition series based on fundamental children's toys- ball, bike, kite, etc., tapping deep into the universal yearnings of children & yes, adults. The Toy is a grand vehicle for the broadest audience to range from anthropology to deep physics.

Kite Dynamics

Kiting is an extension of soaring where the tether acts like a second gravity, complicating things. What further makes kites so different than powered aircraft is the close reliance on the wind field, rather than a motor, for actuation. What a powered aircraft feels as "rough air" is the kite's world.

DRAFT NOTES 0.2

KiteBot

AutoKites

Kitebots are a novel branch of aviation opening vast new applications. Emergent kitebots are increasing in stability, control, & automation.

The Well-Situated Kite- In robotics effective autonomous systems are "situated", highly optimized to conditions, real-world knowledge is "passively" embodied. Successful planetary rovers express this philosophy, their processing & power budgets are pitiful, even by hobbyist standards, yet they are at home in extreme new worlds. The classic single line kite is nicely situated, tending to stay up without electronics or actuators, essential stability feedback loops built-in, almost launch & forget. Its ready to go to work.

A new generation of work kites with variable power.

Ironic if weather control emerging in desperation to save nature, niether agrarian daydream nor doomsday weapon.

Element Summary

Anti-Crash System, for flying low &/or on the edge of the kite window. Early deliverable toward advanced AutoKite.

LTA (Helium) Preventer gives a kite light air persistence. An airbeam (or fine carbon tube) riblet pattern in LTA unit's outer skin is proposed to allow elimination of active pressure balloonet, (this could become a preferred general LTA solution) Helium retention liners are changeable as they age faster (develop porosity or weigh too much) than primary structural fibers.

Load paths alternating nylon & stronger lower stretch fabric/membrane. Use UV resistant polyester, especially top surfaces in more sun, & cuben fiber, especially along critical load paths. Polyester airbeams might perform best, given all tradeoffs. Kite will keep original shape along loadpaths, stretching locally along nylon gores with wet & weathering, creating a ripple pattern that may, properly designed (orthogonal to flow along detach line), act to keep flow attached at high AoA (like fine ridges on frisbees, boomerangs, etc.). As nylon photo-degrades, but the other materials retain strength, the kite will fail gracefully, in little patches, easily repaired. Reduced blowout risk (pro prime directive- kite must never foul boat)

Variable porosity membranes concentrate low porosity behind LE to promote stable inflation, while minimizing weight.

Increasingly variable geometry according to conditions, the grail is a quiver-in-one kite. Membrane trimming/warping for large control effects from small inputs. The integration of control, trim, variable geometry, reefing/depowering. Stable low drag (low AoA, flat camber) towing of the kite in dead air, squall, or headwind. (stable high drag is normal offwind condition). A constellation of designs & options moving toward quiver-in-one; a flexible component architecture where by the kite system is continually customized session to session, LTA a seasonal option, drifter mode, reefed/storm mode. Continual recutting & augmenting old test kites to build design case-base.

Severely limited twin-skin features, to avoid weight. If any, thin skinny inflated leading edge stiffeners (airbeams), low weight gain, to buckle but recover somewhere between pure single-skin & thick fat ribs and to hold the kite part-open in dead air, hanging under LTA. There is a need for "hardpoints", places where electronics hang without unduly distorting sail, skinny airbeam spiders are proposed.

Novel actuators with high effectiveness & low weight. Servoed "Para Commander" slits might allow large fast control inputs at lowest weight; variable slit yaw/power actuators.

Below: slit rudder/flaps, active bridles, & variable geometry, loadpath study, leading edge dev.

ShipKite Applications & Enhancements

Below: Kite payload-hiking aft, & forward helium buoyancy provide passive nose up stability.

Below Right: An OutLeader-based kite ladder-mill would be lighter than any previous design & the retrieval of feathered units superior to the big downside of rigid-wing return. The improved mill won't stand as vertical as low L/D versions, but generates huge drag forces at ultra low power to weight, & is more resistant to light-wind shut-down. Fabric kites pass bottom ladder-mill gear more simply than rigids. Safety, as in the event of kites-down, is enhanced. The concept slashes costs.

Above Center-Left: The dotted line above shows the current kite contour. Radical variable geometry possible in the same kite. Compare "downwind" profile at center-left, previous sketch- the original OutLeader w/nips & tucks, but with trim control, a quiver's worth.

Scaling Laws

The power of scaling laws allows the prediction of large-scale dynamics using calculations & small cheap scale models. I have been working at a toy scale with fast results that otherwise would take much more time & money for less results.

The 100sqm Test-bed Scale

Servo line steering at kite eliminates tether lag/mush as an interim actuator.

A water-resistant servo suitable for 100 sq. meter Kitebot in medium winds- mega RC Servo. Servos are often modified into continuous gearmotors.

RC radio buddy box provides PC interface. Later, when RC control superceded, PC interface hooks up to new controller, likely a low power microcontroller, on the kite, on a wireless network.

Lifter Kite scale spectrum small-largedelta/sled/kiteship OL (jelly kite)

Kitebot Toy-World

Four spacetime dimensions (or Degrees-of-Freedom (DOF)), two boat dimensions, three kite dimensions, one tether dimension, 3 paravane (p-tether + 2D nav) dimensions, for a 13 dimensional/DOF toy-world made of a bit of infinite Hilbert Space severely limited by computational constraints, still a rather high-dimensioned space (in our case the smallest adequate finite-state machine). Only by keeping dimensions few & coarse grained is the state-machine tractable. Fortunately, a proper set of simplified dimensions is capable of crude grace.

Some basic dimensions-

The Beaufort Seawind Scale is used here as a simplification laced with old sea-wisdom, while the operational units are meters-per-second translated at will to knots, mph, whatever the application programmer is instructed to support & sensors allow. Beaufort Force Scale of 0-12 (itself a simplification), is hereby simplified to BeaufortLow (0-3) BeaufortMed (4-7) BeaufortHigh (8-11), never mind 12, hurricane force. The entire Beaufort Scale would be an example of a stub for future elaboration. Lets also adopt our simplified Beaufort for boat & winch speed (fractional BeaufortLow) to make the concept model uniform. The boat's relative direction rose is based on a 360 compass rose, semanticaly simplified here to eight values, a stub for the whole 32 as needed- DeadAhead DeadAstern StarboardBeam PortBeam StarboardQuarter PortQuarter & "4 points off the bow", lets dub StarboardBowQuarter & PortBowQuarter . The compass rose is 0-360, here simplified into 8 semantic segments- North Northeast East Southeast South Southwest West Northwest . Points-of-(kite)sail- Pinched CloseHauled CloseReach Reach BroadReach Run, which vary for different L/Ds. The KiteWindow is operationally defined by these bands. Fine-grain quantitative azimuth (degrees from KiteWindowDeadDownwind) is a stub.

State-machine transformation matrixes do sensory processing conversions into high-level state, then into raw actuation.The core (realtime) state machine contains all atomic predictions, every substate points along all its vectors. Session planning (flight planning) a whole developmental area in itself.system limits of the kite's capabilities

Kite Attitude & Velocity

The KiteYaw axis compass is 12 ("clock") sections as seen from AnchorPoint, 12 o'clock up, 3 right, etc. KiteAoa values are High Med Low

control inputs with a kite; yaw, and power/depower ( AoA control, camber control or other power control). Plus line-out, line-in (winching, boat moves) which varies AoA. The kite model includes response to varied wind, wind as roque control input, surging/accelerations of the kite- desired in moderate conditions, autodepower/brake in storm KiteSurge KiteDepower KiteCruise

Kite's parts often fly in different windows entirely while tether-bound to one another. To model differing apparent wind conditions along the kite's span finite kite theory breaks the metakite down into subkites, a kite mesh of intertugging elements, all locally self aerotrimming, especially for fine control of high L/D at low angles of attack.

The state machine acts as a governor, if the kite surges outside its desired state a corrective state (Brake) kicks in. Notes- Surges are caused by 1)control input 2)wind a)increase b) surge turbulence 3)unknown/sensor error/fault, etc.(False Surge)...sigh, this could take a while, far better to have surge-on-demand & anti-surge built in. Also, overfly is a consideration for hot kites.

Speed KiteSpeed__ BoatSpeed__ WinchSpeed__ WindSpeed__

The system envelope's multiple horizontal coordinate systems stacked like pancakes, k-window models nestled in shells, like GIS layers, paravane windows shown as well.

Kitebot State Machine

contains crude language :^)

Initial design reflects a toy kite-world of essential kitesailing parameters interacting with the Kitebot/Autokite Specification Daft, with expansion stubs to encompass greater precision over time & open up issues of boat-pilotage, weather-change, multi-sensing, special hardware, etc., toward the eventual Gen3 kite. Whatever equivalent mathematical formalism used to validate the model(s) (Differential Equations, Matrix Algebra, etc.), the state machine is suitably automated by translation into an object-oriented (OO) programming language like C++. Everything in an OO environment is an object, including hierarchical object classes. The following notes are the most preliminary description of high-level system semantic objects/classes (in Bold). Underscores are instanceOf their parent classes, specific instances lower on the ladder of abstraction, note that universal tool objects like instanceOf begin in lowercase, while system-specific objects begin in uppercase.

Sample major system class objects- Wind Kite KiteLine Winch Boat

The Wind class has WindState WindHeading WindSpeed WindApparent WindTrue & so on.

A glimpse of Kite's class hierarchy-

Kite

Kite__ (an instanceOfKite)

KiteEnvelope

KiteState

KiteAttitude

KiteAzimuth

KiteElevation (not altitude, a term reserved for altitude ASL (above sea level)

KiteWindow

KiteWindowState

KiteLine

KiteLineState

KitelineStateTight

Notes- Kite properly flies in its KiteWindow, with relation to the Boat (though it might KiteGlidelide KiteCutaway or KiteLta_hang outside any normal window), roughly contained in a quarter sphere (apse) projection directly downwind on top of the horizon. The higher the kite's lift-to-drag, the bigger the KiteWindow. The KiteWindow stretches & shrinks with, changing wind, KiteLine Pull/Slack & Nadir/Base (boat) movement. KiteWindowHorizon a subset of BoatHorizon Bow/Stern/Abeam/Abaft, w/ points off" TrueHorizon (0-360) dynamic model of complex KiteWindow with adjoining no-go zones (zenith, luff zone, abaft-of-boat (unless towing or retrieving kite), surface/obstacles, etc.). The window varies with apparent wind as a function of heading/boatspeed & true-wind -a four-line (power bridle) LTA (lighter-than-air) kite. -a model of boat-kite-wind interaction KiteDeathdive state, kite has fallen at speed. Big jellyfish/mushroom-cloudlike kites commonly bounce & recover surface contact, NearDeathdive KiteMoonBounce touch & go contact, not uncommon. The upper outer KiteWindowEdge is a KiteWindowLuffZone including a KiteWindowWindwardLuffZone & KiteWindowZenithLuffZone, a the lower inner KiteWindowEdge is the KiteWindowPowerZone, low on the horizon where pull is more in-line with BoatWindow. KiteWindowDepowerZone runs along the KiteWindowLuffZone. A persistent KiteWindowCrashZone is the dangerous low band where crashes are sudden. The Surface or KiteWindowHorizon is the bottom of the KiteWindowCrashZone. A persistent sail/kite BoatCrashZone is a LeeShore KiteWindowSweetSpot is the optimal location for the kite in the window, often the central KiteWindowPowerZone, safely above the Surface, where traction forces are greatest at least risk. In overpowered conditions the KiteWindowSweetSpot becomes a KiteWindowDepowerZone KiteWindowNoFlyZones include KiteWindowOverPowerZones. The KiteWindowZenith is over the KiteWindowNadir, the kite's KiteWindowAnchorPoint

Below: Notes toward a layered kite window, like GIS Layers mapped upon each other, of all the window models known. The sample window shell at upper left shows iso-power lines circling between window edge & power zone & power gradient lines running orthogonally, with various L/D ratio kites overlaid. Note paravane underwater window & Lissajous sweep plots

NOTE- Concept of kite windows, subwindows, & superwindows forming envelopes (as in "flight envelope" or "system envelope", the dynamic dimensions of the state machine). Concept of a BoatWindow, a watery 360 disk constrained by obstacles, uniformly relates the boat to the KiteWindow, ditto KitelineWindow & WindWindow

The (true, "meteo") Wind has a WindHeading & WindSpeed. KiteWind (KiteWindHeading,etc.) & BoatWind are apparent winds

KiteWindowNoFlyZones- Surface & Obstacles Hazard, Excess or insufficient KiteSpeed zones, Low/No Wind, Stall/Luff Zones, Headwind

KiteWindowFlyZone KiteWindowNoFlyZone Big wavetops, fixed & moving obstacles, wind shadows, etc.

The KiteWindow has depth (three "back of window" zones)- the NearKiteWindow, MediumKiteWindow, & FarKiteWindow.

Tow TowLine TowState TightTowLine SlackTowLine

Boat Boat__ BoatState BoatHeading BoatSpeed

BoatWindow BoatEnvelope.

SurfaceObstacle

Winch WinchState WinchRetracted WinchExtended___

SlowRetract as default, SpeedRetract for freer boat control, sudden wind loss, etc.. Retract entails KiteDepower

Actuator KiteActuator KiteActuatorTrim1

Sensor KiteSensor BoatSensor TetherSensor

Controller KiteController WinchController BoatController

Command KiteCommand BoatCommand

DeathDive risk zone found low and windward as kite tilts closer to dive

the window has zones corresponding to kite L/D, the most downwind center low L/D works, but at the wndow edge a higher L/D is required.

High Level Behavior Stubs (Gen3+)

A KiteSession begins with KiteLaunch & ends with KiteRetrieval, KiteRunaway, KiteCutaway, or KiteCrash

water relaunch

The KiteSailingCaseBase (a "stub", for now) matches InstanceOfKite InstanceOfKiteSession-type information, plus annotations.

TopState the state of all substates, in particular the summarized system state (TopStateAllGood) an instanceOf TopState TopStateGood TopStateFault TopStateFailure

SpaceTime, the encoding of time (realtime to GMT/calendar)& space (3D)dimensions

ParseMetero read forcasts & respond suitably StormWarning

KiteFlightEnvelope KiteAttitude__ KiteAirspeed__ KitePull__

KiteAbaftboat KiteAbowboat -conditions that determine if the kite can pull or must be pulled; cool convergence of salty language & techno geek-speak.

- Every global state has a goalstate (like SailNorth) & a boat state (BoatHeadingEastHalfSpeed) wind state (SouthWind).

kite seeks a calculated optimal position, attitude, & velocity or defaults to low drag park

kite's apparent wind

2-line logic is standard minimalist airplane control (twin elevons, roll then pitch to turn). i was confused by good 2-line kite control, but it turns out that a two line flier can depower/surge a given kite wing, or the whole kite, by greater arm gymnastics, plus running around, to manage what Four-line level of control can do with reduced control input. Model stub maps onto n-many lines as needed. Utimately a 1-line kite, low-power actuation in the kite surface.

Lets follow Dr B by simply specifying the two rear lines to be slaved into one input.

depower/lowpower-.. flatten chord with his internal load curtain lines; quick-sag rear lines? Low power actuation- blow air between chambers/bladders?

If-then rules to check state machine- if wind high, then depower, if wind still too high then reef, if wind still too high then retrieve

=============================================================

Why Kites Crash, What To Do.

"Even after considerable progress...kites are difficult to launch and land (&) require constant skilled attention." Peter Lynn, '06

Fly a kite some & it thumps. Kiters crashe & laugh. Technical fliers crash & people get hurt. A reliable kite is engineering's despair. Even model airplanes crash less. Fortunately the new kiting can follow aviation, a total safety culture, already paid in blood. Working kites must adopt that dread of crashing, LIDAR at the end-of-the-tunnel.

The kiter's "death-dive" is the towed hang-glider's "lock-out", where a kite or glider passes a point of no return predicted by the actuation extended torque equation that defines a kite's control & inherent stability, its flight envelope in a given dynamic wind field where rogue cork-screw streamlines lurk that literally fly the kite into the ground, especially as airspeed increases, any pendulum or pilot input overpowered. Lock-out is controlled by reducing tow force.

The Torque Equation predicts that with weak stability & control, the kite is overwhelmed by imbalances & windfield effects.

Skydiver's Ground-Suck- the lower you are, the quicker a crash-

low speed stall where control inputs lose effectiveness. Increase control surfaces. Detect imminent stall & avoid. Try stall detectors similar to airplane versions, instrumented tell-tales, perhaps based on fober-optic or piezo based sensors, aero-acoustic pickups, load-cells in lines/fabrics. Swept wings, trubulators, etc. , tame violent stall behavior.

violent high-speed whip-lash stalls. Depower before control is overwhelmed.

high-speed nose-down kite surge added to gravity driven acceration.

Tether-jacking- yanking on control lines, such as might be caused by kite-boat motion in a seaway.

Low stretch line transmitts turbulent pull/slack into an undercompliant anchor point.

Gravity enhanced surging of a diving kite increases as the ground nears at a tangent to the kite line, rather than balancing orthoganally higher in the window..

A power kite spends much time low on the power zone where the low-wing drags in dirtier, slower air, stalled relative to surging high-wing, "hooking" kite into surface.

Gusts usually hit high points first, accelerating (or spoiling) the kite high wing.

Windstream von Karmon waves caused by ground friction buffets kite with lift/sink surge/depower oscillations.

Typical kite, lacking balanced keel/rudder lift while tracking low & parallel to surface, prone to sideslip or hook into ground. Keels (& ears) on kites to act as horizontal wings when low kites track sideways.

Fast kites & fast winds overwhelm pendulum stability & controls.

Multi-line twist pulls on kite, addting surge (Spanish windlass effect). In most yoke/control arm mounts twist is at its maximum as kite has dived into the groundsuck zone. Twist is an oscillation, like the whirling button/disk string toy.

Chaotic seaway motion bad input into control line(s). Bow placement of kite gear amplifies the problem, gear which idealy sould be just forward of hull CE (Center of Effort), not the bow (except running). Dipping booms absorb considerable off-motion. A Motion Platform, a sort of actuator-legged table-top, could ease seaway motion & provide optimal mult-line control.

A key to inherent kite stability is the despised kitetail, real airplane airplanes don't disain vert/hort stabizers , with the functions of elevator & rudder. Recent hot hanggliders growing litttle tails.

Gyro stabilzation can be the solution to kite stability, the whole kite or gross elements spinning & generating useful tensioning & Mangus force?

Aircraft Stall a special case of lock out

Ground-Suck*, Lock-Out**, Death-Dive***:

Anti-Crash System

Timely unreeling allows a destabilized kite to right itself, escaping "lock-out". Reel in capability ideally allows the kite to be brought to its anchor point in calm or even head-wind, such as will happen if a kite-ship, to avoid a collision or grounding suddenly powers downwind faster than the true wind.

Tech cure for death dive... hunting RC helicopter rate gyros & found Airplane Piezo Gyro Stabilizer, Tower Hobbies TH1919, $129.99, weight & price nice. A plane's roll stability operates around a horizontal axis, just like kite yaw low in the window. A case study- Spiral Stability Augmentation by Gyro. The vario function of this GPS unit could complete a autopilot- highspeed gps vario

available altimeters provide ~4m resolution, if constantly recalibrated; aviation radio-altimeters over water said fluky, GPS works if map is correct,Audio works over some distance, birds use it a lot. A poorly aimed small light low-power pulsed piezo screamer (truck back up beeper weighing ~10 gr) would return first echo as reliable kite nadir reading, to a bandpass audio filter. The screamer enhances safety, if you don't go nuts, in part as foghorn. A cruising option, heard below-deck, all-good. Industrial sensors for storage tank level measurement exist. Laser rangers work, what freq. best? Guess blue-green laser or right maser (As opposed to sea-sodium LIDAR). The tight beam photonic sensors must be closely pointed at nadir to give correct reading, or know its angular error off nadir- dampened pendular gimble mount

Ground-effect stabilizion effect? Aircushion pilot runner? At the visionary fringe, lenticular/spindle helium balloon could be spun up inside an OutLeader as a giant weightless gyro kite stabilizer. Mount on a swiveled line between clews, ideally spin up by airstream.

See Kill Systems, when all else fails.

------------------------------------

problem is >50% loss making light & >70% loss converting light to electricity, but a good method for distributed micropower (sensors & comm. esp.), cogeneration/co-use, & light signaling (nav. beacons, markers), glass fiber is cheapest cost-to-strength super-fiber, high thermal limit, a few thousand watts per sq. inch (cross-section) possible...but consider simple mechanical line transmission:

The size & handedness of the helicity spectrum can be sensed by simple means. The kite can thus prepare for a hit without remote sensing exactly what's coming. Someday LIDAR or SODAR imaging will reveal the whole can-of-worms & kites will fly right up to wind-worms on the favoured quarters & experience a nice boost. Flying turbines can hunt & eat these energy bundles.

Pull together & pull youself together

Floating in wind doesn't tear at things, its moving calm, serene drift in flow.

kite line is compliance in 2 1/2 dimensions- only tensilely rigid, soften by catenary sag & stretch.

capture, degree of, as determinant of reliability, vs. weight, as ever...

a solar-sail based Dysonsphere, does dark matter hide endless dyson collectives?

Expert kite flying is hi-D super-chess, state-space mastery is everything, Dean Jordan said it; if the kite saw ahead a bit it could be reliable. Kiteboarding is complex & potentially tragic, so its situationalism is explicit.

Hardware Notes

K-HAZ

Kite hazard marking- a British standard calls for a red & white tube 2m long & 50cm wide w/ 50cm color bands, markers spaced every 100m, with red & white lights

Swivels are critical to rotating kite systems. New ultralight swivels need to be developed that are fully inspectable & failsafe- that don't part even as bearing(s) fail. Operation in sand & saltwater is a challenge, repacking & lubrication will be routine. Tracking of operational hours of individual components will be useful.

Large quivers will be the norm for high-duty kite operations. Kites for every weather condition, spares, kites under repair & upgrade, etc. A kite shed will be needed for the clouds of polyester & nylon. Long rigging tables will be prominent. An industrial chicken house would work, the cross ventilation allowing drying under a roof.

kiteline must be ongoingly inspected for damage. repair knots can be the simpler kind if the safety margin is ample. Failure due to line drag & weight needs to be carefully balanced against breakage failure, a generally higher consequence event.

AutoZenith of a tailless hi aspect ratio kite works by reference to an "artificial horizon"; a level contol-bar across wind direction tugs the high brake against sweep, returning a wandering kite to near-zenith. A & B lines run closer to bar center. D lines run to bar ends. (C-lines omitted in modern kite) When this puzzle was posed at KiteShip, i was fooled by a minor stability mechansm based on wing-tip TE mass. Peter Lynn smiled at my barking up the wrong tree. The AutoZenith principle is broadly useful for kite automation, a structural stability to underlie control, just as an airliner's wing dihedral still underlies fly-by-wire.

Flying power kites elevated by lifter kites above the crash zone is an extension of ancient pole-flying. A transverse kite arch can create the AutoZenith reference "bar" with multi lines spread out to auto-regulate sweep.

A merciful safety feature of sweep power is that sweeping elements naturally stop sweeping altogether as the system descends in calm..

Aeroelasticity & chaos science explains kite behavior.

Tetherforce overwhelms inertial mass & gravity in a power sweep. An earth-anchor is the ultimate inertial ground of any aeroelastic system. Practical aeroservoelasticity is chaos mastered, a butterfly-effect controller.

Dampeners, exciters, tuned parallel oscillation cells entrain

pendulum stability dampened by spread keel.

some odd control ideas-

-now flying big traction kite from simple sand-anchor/control-bar, with flier standing safely upwind kite-reins in hand; cheap alternative to turret/cart schemes for pulling, lifting, pumping apps. -multi-reel bar run "backwards" captures energy by a sweep-pulsed spiral-spring-return rotary-pump or ratcheted-freewheel-to-flywheel/generator, allowing control bar to stay in one place, while freely flying kite across window. -have refined a giant soft "virtual control bar" made of nothing but lines, pulleys, & sand-anchors to fly 300ft "flying windfarm" arch. able to pivot (weathervane) the whole rig, independent of steering.

Heads-Up- A kite-tech association is forming online, a consortium of the serious small players world-wide

here is an awesome secret- tie a kids kite string to Archimedes lever & you are moving the earth (very slowly), the limit is how fast can you move the string before it melts (~mach3 in air). 1 HP is 330 lbs lifted 3 feet a second to figure work by given test-rated line at a given speed, low stretch line (Dyneema/Spectra, piano-wire, Kevlar) is up to ~98% efficient at transmitting force in kite applications, so 3lbs pull at 330 ft per sec. or 19800 ft per min., about 200 mph, so a polyester thread can transmitt ~1 hp!

a bull-wheel (make small ones from road-bike wheel) is used to drive cable at speed, one might crank a bike drive-train aloft to get long line moving 70mph or more from a low rpm flying turbine. A giant bull wheel might consist of a string bridle-cone with line-retaining "bones" keeping driven line from riding down the cone.

Blade-wings hang loosely as a skirt, twirling outward into a vertical axis rotor that tilts up to horizontal axis as power mode

Dimensionless math unites the scale modeler with the giant kite Ahabs. Scaling laws allow orderly upsizing, dimensionless numbers key, dimensionless money even, one KiteLab Peso = 1000 Google dollars so 10 pesos have matched Makini's first 10 million.

Pedaleando p'adelante con mi papalote

prometame mi cometa, ne-ne

cometamigos,

Essential Kite Books

Kites: The Science & the Wonder, Ito & Komura- My endurance flying confirms the bold theses of this admirable four year study (essentially Bethwaite's Eureka, wind helicity, from the same era). To these scientists kites are "strange, magical", "most impractical toy-game-sacred object", its the ludic-divine, Hesse's bead-game, ultimately recognized as an "ideal learning tool" & "experimental engineering", as hyperdimensional quest which the scientists admit remained elusive, despite incredible work. Because i found the book only after my own quest, certain clues lept out, that "winding" "descending" winds doom even good kites, winds i found correlate with the advancing quarter of a cyclone, a Low on a regional scale or "bookend" micro-scale downburst.

Van Veeter assigned the kite problem to chaos & dynamic systems theory, but his pet thesis, the "mass ratio" constant, contradicts reynolds variability.

Moulton nicely captures kiting as it flourished in the '60s thru the '90s. His UK ATC kite regs are a model to build on. He rightly lauds Ray Holland, an aernautical engineer who took kites foreward.

Hart's historical survey has good golden age kite material, when kites ruled the air.

====================================

LINKS

===========key old links==============

Best Kite Study (tied with Ito & Komura)

http://en.scientificcommons.org/8488723

great ribbon-rotor paper

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/38720

========================

http://www.aerobie.com/Science.htm

http://www.science.org.au/nova/newscientist/037ns_003.htm http://kitesurfingschool.org/kiteenergy.htm two friends of mine, Pete & Wayne, a few years ago- http://groups.google.com/group/sci.energy/browse_thread/thread/7e4fdb0421d2afb0/882c3b4181aa1b4d http://cache.zoominfo.com/cachedpage/?archive_id=0&page_id=763811573&page_url=%2f%2fwww.yellowairplane.com%2fMISC%2fTethered_Airfoils%2findex.htm&page_last_updated=9%2f6%2f2006+8%3a52%3a36+AM&firstName=Wayne&lastName=German Cringely & Pete- http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20071012_003200.html More friends- makani.com kiteship.com drachen.org peter lynn newsletter gomberg kites also Wired, Boing-Boing, Austin Statesman, Discovery Channel, etc. have covered kite/LTA energy.

Dr. Buchholz's four-line simulator, a exemplary module between an as yet undefined machine vision/multi-sensing component & a real-world actuation environment. joerg.buchholz@dlr.de, Doc's kite Simulation Note- ask doc to change his "kite roll" tag to kite-centric "kite yaw".

Dan Ruuska kite theory kite theory 102

Peter Lynn Kitesailing thoughts

S.F.Codys War Kites

kitefishing tech existing proof-of-concept, plus kitefishing balloons descrip.

The Kestrel UAV AutoPilot is current best of breed.

lost links to minesweeping (paravanes par excellence)

MATERIALS-

UV resistant aliphatic urethane

load-path construction, with separate materials used in kite structure & surface

Expensive Cuben Fiber Sailcloth rationed on loadpaths, nylon & polyester still workhorse fabrics.

Cuben Fiber

CN1K.08: Ultra light spinnakers and drifters

Fast soft-power actuators my old robot kicked a**.

infllatable aerospace "Advantages of inflatable structures include lightweight, low packing volume, tailorable inflation time, energy absorption, and economy in fabrication. Prototyping is often accomplished in days rather than months typical for metal or composite products." ILC Dover, aerospapce soft-goods leader

Gossamer Spacecraft Research and Technology

Marlow Ropes – Marine & Offshore

LTA KITES

Allsopp Helikites Ltd

SKYDOC KITE BALLOON

SKYPOWER-

Magenn savonius blimp

Sky WindPower Corporation

laddermill kite

Misc. Contacts-

Bartlett Sails, custom racing sails, in Austin

andersansar@mail4u.com.mm Ansar should check out- Airbow double symmetry scanner kite

Concept development giant drifter kite (~Gen4 Outleader) toward higher L/D, greater stability & control..

Below: a distributed paravane/kiteboat system, the upper left inset shows a Jordan sled kite run up the to sheets partway to hold the dousing OutLeader clear of the water, allowing a dry dignified retieval. Cody cones shown oversize for clarity.

( www.solar-flight.com); Alan Cocconi (www.acpropulsion.com)

SOLAR FLIGHT INC

2450 Montecito Rd

Ramona CA USA 92065

eric@solar-flight.com

AutoKite Study Group, a public/private effort cosponsored project with a small matched grants (nonprofit admin umbrella), with provisions for commercial sponsors to have intitial exclusive commercial license (under design copyright, not patent basis), call it a Hybrid Open-Source model that encourages free contribution by academic/individual talent, but restricts unauthorized outside commercial use.

How about we carve up the market between developers, like land v. sea applications, paravanes, dedicated kiteboats, towed turbines, general shipping, & provide open-source license to all private DIY individuals, Drachen's cut.

a cellular kite-window grid, the kite is always in a given square with a given velocity & attitude, constrained to occuppy only adjoining cells (or the same cell at zero velocity) according to rules determined by the kite's performance, conditions, & commands.

specify . The window model will continuosly calculate an optimal point for the kite to exist if our conditions sensors are adequate..

3) overlay 2 over 1 and send control inputs to place the kite at the nearest overlapping junction. >Yes, interpolate a path between the two & step thru it, with feedback, all the way. 4) Repeat at maybe 2-10 hz >It should run faster than the requirement, for we'll need to be able to eat into that speed as the the system grows, or somehow bogs down. professional paranoia simpler is always better, no? >Yes, almost always. we must repeat the obvious to a high polish- simple means a system that is robust, maintainable, & expandable. >One of the major things you could do for us is to open your rolodex on our behalf. its yours. Start with Prof. John Canny in your backyard. Tell him i'm the guy he emailed a decade ago to get a head-start on the robot blimps (envelopes in particlar) that he & Eric Paulos went on to develop. i vaguely remember sending them heat-seal mylar that a factory had gifted me, a huge roll, barely diminished, that mad all our blimps, & is probably still at Bartlett Sails here. Let me know of ay particular type person in robotics & AI, i was honored to meet & work with hundreds, from JPL (the glorious marsbots) to the Cyc project (poor HAL). >simpler, cheaper, failsafe Sadly, this resembles the classic "pick any two" problem which goes something like cheap, safe & ontime. Failsafe very tough with high-consequence system operating at near-critical performance.

A state machine can be visualized as a puzzle; a hypersolid that unfolds cleanly into a lattice of tables & runs like a game-board. A mind boggling holism but any point hangs in local clarity..

Aerospace Kites

Aerospace concepts & techniques now ecompass all aeronautics, including kites.

(neural nets) only be a small module in the system to try to capture the expert's "muscle memory", not to replace the formal state machine.

scale test track (maybe just a cart) that pulls scale sails along your loft's length, like a water filled hull test tank, but much cheaper & simpler. cool.

KiteBot Groups

Fair-Trade IP; intellectual right to compensation on the honor system. Open license to needy.

Compared to Portland or Austin, its tough to get a kitebot group going in the Silicon Valley/SF bay area due to high costs & social dispersal. KiteShip is encouraging, but doing an open-source/intellectual property balancing act.

Open source oriented kitebot group in austin, Portland & Seattle, with the Bay Area group clustered around KiteShip & Squid Labs commercial research efforts. Wayne German is guarded with his key ideas. Amateur groups will generate commercial ventures & provide training for engineers later hired by the going enterprises.

Kitebot Lab... the half dozen or so technical kite freaks in Portland Chapter (Austin & SF Bay Area groups starting in ~parallel) parts of a global Technical Kite Group, with a particular initial focus on small scale energy/transport applications.

portland technical kite group- PoTeKi AusTeKi BayTeKi

Most below have kite backgrounds yet specialize in some aspect or other. Dedicated expert generalists are in the first category

Fine Prototype Fab

Kite Programs Administration

World Kite Museum Kay Buesling/Director

Drachen Foundation

Wayne German's thinking- http://cache.zoominfo.com/cachedpage/?archive_id=0&page_id=763811573&page_url=%2f%2fwww.yellowairplane.com%2fMISC%2fTethered_Airfoils%2findex.htm&page_last_updated=9%2f6%2f2006+8%3a52%3a36+AM&firstName=Wayne&lastName=German

dea@wirelessdatasys.com

string as a primary tool- fishing, textiles, sailing,

cycling, aviation (aero-towing), drag fishing, mountaineering, riggin

chance of randomly bridled membrane flying= chance sufficient symmetry, chance of bridal point trim, chance of longitudinal stability, chance of pendulum stability, chance of tail drag.

comment to: santos137@yahoo.com

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