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Welcome to the WavePiston Passive Control (WAPPAC) competition documentation.

Latest News¶

Registration is now open! 🌊

Researchers, students, and professionals in the field of wave energy and control systems are warmly invited to participate.

Important

Please fill out the registration form here to receive a personal download link for the WAPPAC open-source simulation platform. Registered participants will also receive competition updates, technical announcements, and other important information in the future.

Note

Each participant, whether competing individually or as part of a team, must submit a separate registration to ensure effective communication and proper acknowledgment of all participants.

For further information please refer to section Registration for WAPPAC Competition in this website.

WAPPAC Competition¶

The WavePiston Passive Control (WAPPAC) competition is an open challenge offered to the wave energy and control community. Participants are invited to develop passive control strategies for the novel WavePiston wave energy converter (WEC). The goal is to maximize captured energy while respecting WavePiston physical constraints, with particular attention to the PTO passivity constraint.

Through this initiative, WAPPAC competition aims to foster innovation and advance the state of the art in wave energy control. The WAPPAC competition results will be announced and disseminated through a dedicated session at an international conference.

This competition is hosted by the Centre for Ocean Energy Research (COER), Maynooth University, framed within Seawater HYdraulic (SHY) PTO project funded by the European Union (EU) under Horizon funding (Grant Agreement No. 101147456 - SHY).

Learn more about COER work: coer.maynoothuniversity.ie

WavePiston Device¶

WavePiston is a Danish developer of innovative wave energy technology designed to harness the power of ocean waves. The modular system captures energy through a series of sails and power take-off (PTO) units mounted along a submerged pipe or string (see Figure 1). Each sail oscillates in response to the surge motion of incoming waves, and its horizontal movement relative to the string drives the hydraulic PTO units, converting the wave-induced motion into usable energy.

Illustration of Wavepiston WEC system. — Figure 3 Illustration of Wavepiston WEC system, comprising a string of energy collectors. Image courtesy of Wavepiston.¶

Top-view of the first installed energy collector — Figure 4 Top-view from the first energy collector installed on the Wavepiston string at the PLOCAN test site, Gran Canaria. Image courtesy of Wavepiston.¶

EU Horizon SHY Project¶

The SHY project, as part of EU open science policy (Horizon funding Grant Agreement No. 101147456 - SHY), aims to reduce the levelized cost of energy (LCoE) of the WavePiston device, while ensuring environmental sustainability, through the development of key components for a seawater-based hydraulic PTO system and the advancement of passive control strategies for wave energy converters.

WavePiston – Technology developer and system integrator.
COER – Responsible for control strategy development and various other research.
Key partners – Technical University of Denmark, FibronPipe, Leser, Julia F. Chozas Consultancy, Applied Renewables Research, Marine Systems Modelling, and PLOCAN.