Kitekraft Flying Wind Turbine Demonstrator Autonomous Test Flight on 26 January 2022 (Uncut)

0:00 - Lift-Off and Hover 0:59 - Trans-In #1 1:09 - Fly 4 Figure-Eights 2:05 - Trans-Out #1 2:15 - Hover 3:00 - Trans-In #2 3:10 - Fly 8 Figure-Eights 5:02 - Trans-Out #2 5:12 - Hover 8:07 - Trans-In #3 8:17 - Fly 16 Figure-Eights 12:07 - Trans-Out #3 12:17 - Hover 14:54 - Trans-In #4 15:04 - Fly 14 Figure-Eights 18:30 - Trans-Out #4 18:40 - Hover 22:00 - Trans-In #5 22:10 - Fly 8 Figure-Eights 24:03 - Trans-Out #5 24:13 - Hover and Touch-Down Kite size: 2.4m wingspan (1:4 scale). Location: Otterfing near Munich, Germany Date & time: 26 January 2021, around 2 pm. Wind speed: 1?4m/s from west. (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: 4.4 kW (at kite in 800V DC tether). Name of kite: SN7 "Lucky" Additional explanation for this test flight: * Technical terms: "Trans-In" is the maneuver to transition from hovering to figure-8 flight, "Trans-Out" is the maneuver to transition from figure-8 flight to hovering, figure-8 flight is the power generation flight phase. * During hovering, the team discussed the kite's test results and the test program. In a product version, the hovering phase would be kept as short as possible. * The flight was controlled autonomously by the kite's control software, apart from receiving high-level commands by the test team such as "launch now" and "land now if possible". * Purpose of test flight: gather data for validation of software updates regarding the control algorithms in all flight maneuvers, test of a sensor switch, and particularly validate stability and repeatability of the trans-in and trans-out maneuvers, which are the most challenging maneuvers the kite has to perform. * More than 2,000 data points are gathered every 25ms (40x per second, 80,000 data points per second) for analysis and optimization. * The flown figure-8 pattern slightly shifts left and right, up and down, and the flight in figure-8 and tether tension is generally not as smooth as it could be, 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: https://youtu.be/JALJa-VVqRg https://youtu.be/DUW4h3UaLdI https://youtu.be/MUalULGdlKo https://youtu.be/2BVUZY1PlG4 https://youtu.be/T6nJHnw76pw https://youtu.be/Loi2SvzreH4 This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe program under Grant Agreement No. 101084216