Customer story

EnerKite

Visibility and Comprehensive Air Situation Awareness for Aerial Wind Turbines

Aerial wind turbines present a unique challenge: The kite used to generate energy operates at high altitudes and must be safely integrated into existing airspace. To achieve this, it is not enough to know only the status of one’s own kite. EnerKíte also needs the most comprehensive picture possible of the surrounding air traffic.

Droniq supports the company with a combined solution that includes tracking, visualization, and air situation awareness. This allows the kite's position to be displayed and viewed alongside available air traffic information.

At a glance

Aerodynamic Wind Turbine
with an automatically controlled kite
Comprehensive Air Situation
including visibility of the kite's position
Tracking & Detection
to establish a shared understanding of the situation

The goal

EnerKíte develops aerial wind turbines in which a kite harnesses high-altitude winds and transmits its pulling force to a ground station via cables. The energy is generated on the ground. During operation, the kite moves along a defined flight path, reaching significantly greater altitudes than traditional ground-level applications.

For EnerKíte, it is therefore crucial to make the kite visible to other airspace users while maintaining as comprehensive a view as possible of the surrounding air traffic. The company was looking for a solution that would combine the kite’s own position with air situation information, thereby supporting the system’s safe integration into the airspace.

The implementation

The kite was equipped with the tracking device Atom UAV from FLARM , which transmits its position data. In addition, the DroneConnect Ground (DCG)detection antenna captures air traffic signals in the vicinity of the facility.

The collected position data is transmitted to the Droniq real-time air situation map and combined with additional information about surrounding air traffic. The air situation can then be viewed in both the TraX and made available via VISX as a raw data stream for custom analyses and applications.

This provides EnerKíte with a consolidated view of the position of its own kite and relevant air traffic in the surrounding area. The combination of these components creates a technical foundation for monitoring the operation of the aerial wind turbine with the most comprehensive situational awareness possible. 

Our contribution

Droniq provided EnerKíte with the live air setup, consisting of TraX and VISX, as well as the detection antenna DroneConnect Ground (DCG) in combination with the Atom UAV tracking device for the kite. These components support two key requirements: visualizing the kite and mapping the air situation in the vicinity of the facility. 

By combining tracking data, detection, and air situation awareness, Droniq EnerKíte helps integrate the kite transparently into the air situation picture and supports operations based on available traffic information.

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Copyright for images: EnerKite GmbH

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