It takes a fair amount of skill to fly a kite, and controlling these forces of nature has long been a difficult task. With the CyberKite, Germany-based Festo is meeting this challenge by developing a cybernetic controlled kite system. With its Sky-liner and CyberKite projects, Festo has become the first company to demonstrate that fully automated control can be achieved with the aid of ‘mechatronics’ (Mechanical engineering, Electronic engineering, Computer engineering, Control engineering, and Systems Design engineering), thus linking a new development to its core competency of automation using moving air. As the ability to accurately control commercial-grade kites improves, their applications become endless. From pulling ships across the Atlantic - to a myriad of scientific, military, and energy applications - the harnessed energy of kites has many advantages. The design of the bionic wing is based on Festo's Stingray project. It combines a wing with a large volume to hold an aerostatic lifting gas with a good lift-to-drag ratio and high rigidity, which allows the wing to maintain its position even in the absence of wind. The entire system is engineered to autonomously and intelligently cope with strong and turbulent wind conditions. For example, the servomotors used to control the kite periodically switch to generator mode to recover energy from the steering motion and any excess energy from the compliant guy-ropes is also redirected to batteries. For more information visit: http://www.festo.com/net/SupportPortal/Downloads/17307/Info_CyberKite_en_rz_130410_lo.pdf
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