PSO Optimization-Based Control for Floating Offshore wind Turbine: Maximizing Power Generation and Reducing platform motion

Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWT) take advantage of stronger more regular winds at sea, maximizing energy production compared with offshore. However, the platform, which is exposed to wind and wave action, causes instability. This paper addresses the control problem of a FOWT with a semi-submersible platform as an optimization task. A Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)-based control strategy is used to solve this problem in order to improve the dynamic performance and stability of FOWT in region III. The optimization problem has a decision variable, the optimal blade pitch angle and generator torque, to maximize the generated power and minimize the platform motion. To reduce the oscillatory pitch motion of the platform a non-linear model was used to capture the dynamic response of the system and account for its non-nonlinearities. This model is used to predict the motion of the platform over a 10-step prediction horizon. The proposed optimization-based control strategy was evaluated against a baseline controller under varying wind and wave conditions using OpenFAST and Simulink/MATLAB. Simulation results show that the proposed approach significantly improves stability, reducing platform pitch oscillations by 73% compared to the baseline controller and 60% for the pitch angle rate.