Alleviation of unbalanced rotor loads by single blade controllers

A novel approach to reducing the unbalance rotor loads by pitch control is presented in this paper. Each blade has its own actuator, sensors and controller. These localised blade control systems operate in isolation without need of communication with each other. This single blade control approach to regulation of unbalanced rotor loads has several advantages including being straightforward to design and easy to tune. Furthermore, it does not affect the operation of the central controller and the latter need not be re-designed when used in conjunction with the single blade controllers. Their performance is assessed using BLADED simulations