Within a wave energy converter's operational bandwidth, device operation tends tobe optimal in converting mechanical energy into a more useful form at an incidentwave period that is proximal to that of a power-producing mode of motion. Pointabsorbers, a particular classification of wave energy converters, tend to have a relativenarrow optimal bandwidth. When not operating within the narrow optimal bandwidth, a point absorber's response and efficiency is attenuated. Given the wide rangeof sea-states that can be expected during a point absorber's operational life, thesedevices require a means to adjust, or control, their natural response to maximize theamount of energy absorbed in the large population of non-optimal conditions. In thefield of wave energy research, there is considerable interest in the use of non-linearcontrol techniques to this end. Non-linear control techniques introduce time-varying and state dependent controlparameters into the point absorber motion equations, which usually motivates a computationallyexpensive numerical integration to determine the response of the device- important metrics such as gross converted power and relative travels of the device'spieces are extracted through post processing of the time series data. As an alternative, the work presented in this thesis was based on a closed form perturbation basedapproach for analysis of the response of a device with periodically-varying controlparameters, subject to regular wave forcing, in the frequency domain. The proposed perturbation based method provides significant savings in computationaltime and enables the device's response to be represented in a closed formmanner with a relatively small number of solution components - each component iscomprised of a complex amplitude and oscillation frequency. This representation ofthe solution was found to be very concise and descriptive, and to lend itself to the calculationof gross absorbed power and travel constraint violations, making it extremelyuseful in the automated design optimization process; the methodology allows largenumber of design iterations, including both physical design and control variables, tobe evaluated and conclusively compared. In the development of the perturbation method, it was discovered that the device'smotion response can be calculated from an in nite series of second order ordinary differentialequations that can be truncated without destroying the solution accuracy. It was found that the response amplitude operator for the generic form of a solutioncomponent provides a means to gauge the device's response to a given wave input andcontrol parameter variation, including a gauge of the solution process stability. It isunclear as of yet if this is physical, a result of the solution process, or both. However, for a given control parameter set resulting in an unstable solution, the instability wasshown to be, at least in part, a result of the device's dynamics. If the stability concerns can be addressed through additional constraints and updatesto the wave energy converter hydrodynamic parameters, the methodology willexpand on the commonly accepted boundaries for wave energy converter frequency domainanalysis methods and be of much practical importance in the evaluation ofcontrol techniques in the field of wave energy converter technology.