Allister Furey

Papers

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About

Allister Furey is a pioneer in the intersection of evolutionary robotics and renewable energy, specializing in the active control of tethered airfoils for high-altitude wind energy (HAWE) applications. His foundational work, "Evolution of Neural Networks for Active Control of Tethered Airfoils" (2007, 20 citations), demonstrated how artificial evolution could optimize neural network controllers for complex, nonlinear kite dynamics—a breakthrough that bypassed traditional, hand-coded control strategies. Furey extended this paradigm in "Evolutionary robotics in high altitude wind energy applications" (2012, 8 citations), where he systematically showed that evolved robotic controllers could robustly manage the challenging flight patterns of tethered wings, enabling them to harvest the superior, persistent winds found at altitudes beyond conventional turbine reach. His research directly addressed the core challenge of HAWE systems: maintaining stable, energy-yielding flight under turbulent conditions. By proving that evolutionary algorithms could generate adaptive, fault-tolerant control without explicit human programming, Furey’s work laid a critical foundation for autonomous, low-cost airborne wind energy systems. His contributions remain essential reading for researchers in evolutionary robotics, adaptive control, and next-generation wind energy.