Open source SCADA systems for small renewable power generation

Low cost monitoring and control is essential for small renewable power systems. While large renewable power systems can use existing commercial technology for monitoring and control, that is not cost-effective for small renewable generation. Such small assets require cost-effective, flexible, secure, and reliable real-time coordinated data monitoring and control systems. Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) is the perfect technology for this task. The available commercial SCADA solutions are mostly pricey and economically unjustifiable for smaller applications. They also pose interoperability issues with the existing components which are often from multiple vendors. Therefore, an open source SCADA system represents the most flexible and the most cost-effective SCADA solution. This thesis has been done in two phases. The first phase demonstrates the design and dynamic simulation of a small hybrid power system with a renewable power generation system as a case study. In the second phase, after an extensive study of the proven commercial SCADA solutions and some open source SCADA packages, three different secure, reliable, low-cost open source SCADA options are developed using the most recent SCADA architecture, the Internet of Things. The implemented prototypes of the three open source SCADA systems were tested extensively with a small renewable power system (a solar PV system). The results show that the developed open source SCADA systems perform optimally and accurately, and could serve as viable options for smaller applications such as renewable generation that cannot afford commercial SCADA solutions

Low-cost web-based Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system for a microgrid testbed: A case study in design and implementation for academic and research applications

[EN] This paper presents the design and implementation of a low-cost Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system based on a Web interface to be applied to a Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES) microgrid. This development will provide a reliable and low-cost control and data acquisition systems for the Renewable Energy Laboratory a Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (LabDER-UPV) in Spain, oriented to the research on microgrid stability and energy generation. The developed low-cost SCADA operates on a microgrid that incorporates a photovoltaic array, a wind turbine, a biomass gasification plant and a battery bank as an energy storage system. Sensors and power meters for electrical parameters, such as voltage, current, frequency, power factor, power generation, and energy consumption, were processed digitally and integrated into Arduino-based devices. A master device on a Raspberry-PI board was set up to send all this information to a local database (DB), and a MySQL Web-DB linked to a Web SCADA interface, programmed in HTML5. The communications protocols include TCP/IP, I2C, SPI, and Serial communication; Arduino-based slave devices communicate with the master Raspberry-PI using NRF24L01 wireless radio frequency transceivers. Finally, a comparison between a standard SCADA against the developed Web-based SCADA system is carried out. The results of the operative tests and the cost comparison of the own-designed developed Web-SCADA system prove its reliability and low-cost, on average an 86% cheaper than a standard brandmark solution, for controlling, monitoring and data logging information, as well as for local and remote operation system when applied to the HRES microgrid testbed.Vargas Salgado, CA.; Águila-León, J.; Chiñas-Palacios, C.; Hurtado-Perez, E. (2019). Low-cost web-based Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system for a microgrid testbed: A case study in design and implementation for academic and research applications. Heliyon. 5(9):1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02474S1115

Residential Water Meters as Edge Computing Nodes: Disaggregating End Uses and Creating Actionable Information at the Edge

We present a new, open source, computationally capable datalogger for collecting and analyzing high temporal resolution residential water use data. Using this device, execution of water end use disaggregation algorithms or other data analytics can be performed directly on existing, analog residential water meters without disrupting their operation, effectively transforming existing water meters into smart, edge computing devices. Computation of water use summaries and classified water end use events directly on the meter minimizes data transmission requirements, reduces requirements for centralized data storage and processing, and reduces latency between data collection and generation of decision-relevant information. The datalogger couples an Arduino microcontroller board for data acquisition with a Raspberry Pi computer that serves as a computational resource. The computational node was developed and calibrated at the Utah Water Research Laboratory (UWRL) and was deployed for testing on the water meter for a single-family residential home in Providence City, UT, USA. Results from field deployments are presented to demonstrate the data collection accuracy, computational functionality, power requirements, communication capabilities, and applicability of the system. The computational node’s hardware design and software are open source, available for potential reuse, and can be adapted to specific research needs

Design and development of an interface for the remote control of a DC motor

Remote laboratories have been gaining popularity since their first appearance two decades ago as an alternative to hands on laboratories. They present numerous advantages for universities such as lower costs and flexibility, meanwhile, maintaining the benefits of dealing with real systems that virtual laboratories do not present. In this bachelor thesis, an interface to interact in remote with a DC motor, that can be used as a laboratory session was developed. A full stack application using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Python languages was implemented. The front end of the application is a web page with real time graphs and a video feed with low latency. The back end includes a web server that attends the requests from the user, via web sockets, and performs the control loop for the motor, as well as managing the camera. The hardware of the platform was selected after a detailed research, advantages and disadvantages of potential elements alternatives will be explained. The platform also incorporates designed and printed 3D pieces. The system was successfully identified using Python and MATLABs code and its response in velocity and position is simulated with Simulink Tool.Ingeniería Electrónica Industrial y Automátic

Development of a remote IoT laboratory for cyber physical systems

A remote Internet of Things (IoT) laboratory has been developed for use in teaching and research of cyber physical systems. The laboratory is configured such that users interact via the web to control and collect data from connected devices. The concept and technology of the remote IoT lab is successfully demonstrated in two applications. First the laboratory is configured for UTChattSat, a ground model small-satellite system (CubeSat) designed to enhance K-12 learning in the space sciences. The system utilizes real-time communication and web-based user control to create a distributed multi-user interface. Second, the laboratory is configured for a distributed sensor network with a single-user interface. The interconnected, real time, and smart system with embedded sensors and processors is used to provide data for assessment of current building energy models. Finally, challenges posed by interconnected and reconfigurable systems and the implementable future works are discussed

Remote laboratory to support control theory

The Control Systems plays a vital role in the industry, which is the most essential application of the Electrical Engineering. The control concepts are present in most of the automation systems. The Control Systems theory is the key concept to achieve the automation and makes world faster. But, in reality the study of control engineering is decreased in the recent years, because of the difficulty in learning the concepts of the control theory. Most of the students feel difficult to understand theoretical concepts of control systems. The traditional teaching methodology is one way of teaching control systems concepts. Even though books are proper way of teaching control systems in a systematic way, we need additional tool to create interaction between the subject and the students. The teaching platform is worth to analyse the possibility to add or complement the way of standing with means able to add Real evidences. In another way, it is important that the provided lab experiment should be affordable. The teaching platform to support control theory has been introduced with set of experiments to create Real evidences, and manuals to carry out those experiments, slides to have a guidance and Graphical User Interface (GUI) to have an interaction with the control system is provided

Autonomní navigace robota pro pozorování sopek

The purpose of this thesis was to design a method of autonomous navigation to the transportation net of the volcano observation robot CLOVER. In the beginning, it describes how the robot operates, then it is described how two old robots were merged together to recreate the CLOVER robot based on Raspberry Pi a ROS frameworks. Next, various methods of autonomous navigation are discussed to determine which one is optimal for the CLOVER robot in terms of reliability, weight and price of the required hardware. The chosen method uses infrared beacon suspended from the top of the transportation net and infrared receiver mounted on the robot. Finally, there is a description of the implementation of the navigation procedure.Cílem této práce bylo navrhnout metodu autonomní navigace robota pro pozorování sopek CLOVER do jeho transportační sítě. V práci je nejprve popsáno, jak robot pracuje, a poté jak byl ze dvou starých robotů vytvořen robot CLOVER, založen na Raspberry Pi a frameworku ROS. Dále následuje rozbor metod autonomní navigace s následným výběrem optimální metody z hlediska spolehlivosti, váhy a ceny potřebných zařízení. Vybraná metoda využívá infračervený vysílač zavěšený na vrcholku transportační sítě a infračervený přijímač nasazený na robota. Nakonec je popsána implementace navrženého řešení.352 - Katedra automatizační techniky a řízenívýborn

Autonomní navigace robota pro pozorování sopek

The purpose of this thesis was to design a method of autonomous navigation to the transportation net of the volcano observation robot CLOVER. In the beginning, it describes how the robot operates, then it is described how two old robots were merged together to recreate the CLOVER robot based on Raspberry Pi a ROS frameworks. Next, various methods of autonomous navigation are discussed to determine which one is optimal for the CLOVER robot in terms of reliability, weight and price of the required hardware. The chosen method uses infrared beacon suspended from the top of the transportation net and infrared receiver mounted on the robot. Finally, there is a description of the implementation of the navigation procedure.Cílem této práce bylo navrhnout metodu autonomní navigace robota pro pozorování sopek CLOVER do jeho transportační sítě. V práci je nejprve popsáno, jak robot pracuje, a poté jak byl ze dvou starých robotů vytvořen robot CLOVER, založen na Raspberry Pi a frameworku ROS. Dále následuje rozbor metod autonomní navigace s následným výběrem optimální metody z hlediska spolehlivosti, váhy a ceny potřebných zařízení. Vybraná metoda využívá infračervený vysílač zavěšený na vrcholku transportační sítě a infračervený přijímač nasazený na robota. Nakonec je popsána implementace navrženého řešení.352 - Katedra automatizační techniky a řízenívýborn

Harnessing the Benefits of Open Electronics in Science

Freely and openly shared low-cost electronic applications, known as open electronics, have sparked a new open-source movement, with much un-tapped potential to advance scientific research. Initially designed to appeal to electronic hobbyists, open electronics have formed a global community of "makers" and inventors and are increasingly used in science and industry. Here, we review the current benefits of open electronics for scientific research and guide academics to enter this emerging field. We discuss how electronic applications, from the experimental to the theoretical sciences, can help (I) individual researchers by increasing the customization, efficiency, and scalability of experiments, while improving data quantity and quality; (II) scientific institutions by improving access and maintenance of high-end technologies, visibility and interdisciplinary collaboration potential; and (III) the scientific community by improving transparency and reproducibility, helping decouple research capacity from funding, increasing innovation, and improving collaboration potential among researchers and the public. Open electronics are powerful tools to increase creativity, democratization, and reproducibility of research and thus offer practical solutions to overcome significant barriers in science.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figure, 2 table