Recent Progress on Built-in Wave Energy Converters: A Review

A built-in wave energy converter (BI-WEC) is a type of WEC that is fully encapsulated within a floating body that is easy to integrate and promotes reliability. Significant advantages in integration and reliability make BI-WECs a promising pathway to achieve an in situ power supply for massive distributed marine equipment (such as ships, buoys, or USVs). A comprehensive review of the recent advances in built-in wave energy converters can help address the most relevant issues in BI-WEC development. This study enumerates recent progress on BI-WECs (energy capture, power take-off, and control) and summarizes the characteristics of various designs. Different design philosophies and technical pathways can be better understood through the classification and analysis offered by this study. This review helps to form a basic understanding of BI-WEC development to achieve in situ power sustainability for a large amount of distributed marine equipment in long-term sustained marine operations.