This Python code is published as part of the scientific paper Swinging Motion of a Kite with Suspended Control Unit Flying Turning Manoeuvres published in the Wind Energy Science journal. Along with the code, the flight data for the specific pumping cycles used in this study are included.
The paper assesses the accuracy of a two-point kite model in resolving this swinging motion using two different approaches: approximating the motion as a transition through steady-rotation states and solving the motion dynamically. The kite is modelled with two rigidly linked point masses representing the control unit and wing, which conveniently extend a discretised tether model. The tether-kite motion is solved by prescribing the trajectory of the wing point mass to replicate a figure-of-eight manoeuvre from the flight data of an existing prototype. The computed pitch and roll of the kite are compared against the attitude measurements of two sensors mounted to the wing.
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