Demand Reduction and Responsive Strategies for Underground Mining

This thesis presents a demand reduction and responsive strategy for underground mining operations. The thesis starts with a literature review and background research on global energy, coal mining and the energy related issues that the mining industry face everyday. The thesis then goes on to discuss underground mine electrical power systems, data acquisition, load profiling, priority ranking, load shedding and demand side management in mining. Other areas presented in this thesis are existing energy reduction techniques, including: high efficiency motors, motor speed reduction and low energy lighting. During the thesis a data acquisition system was designed and installed at a UK Coal colliery and integrated into the mines existing supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. Design and installation problems were overcome with the construction of a test meter and lab installation and testing. A detailed explanation of the system design and installation along with the data analysis of the data from the installed system. A comprehensive load profile and load characterisation system was developed by the author. The load profiling system is comprehensive allows the definition of any type of load profile. These load profiles are fixed, variable and transient load types. The loads output and electrical demand are all taken into consideration. The load characterisation system developed is also very comprehensive. The LC MATRIX is used with the load profiles and the load characteristics to define off-line schedules. A set of unique real-time decision algorithms are also developed by the author to operate the off-line schedules within the desired objective function. MATLAB Simulation is used to developed and test the systems. Results from these test are presented. Application of the developed load profiling and scheduling systems are applied to the data collected from the mine, the results of this and the cost savings are also presented

Matlab

This book is a collection of 19 excellent works presenting different applications of several MATLAB tools that can be used for educational, scientific and engineering purposes. Chapters include tips and tricks for programming and developing Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), power system analysis, control systems design, system modelling and simulations, parallel processing, optimization, signal and image processing, finite different solutions, geosciences and portfolio insurance. Thus, readers from a range of professional fields will benefit from its content

Machine learning solutions for maintenance of power plants

The primary goal of this work is to present analysis of current market for predictive maintenance software solutions applicable to a generic coal/gas-fired thermal power plant, as well as to present a brief discussion on the related developments of the near future. This type of solutions is in essence an advanced condition monitoring technique, that is used to continuously monitor entire plants and detect sensor reading deviations via correlative calculations. This approach allows for malfunction forecasting well in advance to a malfunction itself and any possible unforeseen consequences. Predictive maintenance software solutions employ primitive artificial intelligence in the form of machine learning (ML) algorithms to provide early detection of signal deviation. Before analyzing existing ML based solutions, structure and theory behind the processes of coal/gas driven power plants is going to be discussed to emphasize the necessity of predictive maintenance for optimal and reliable operation. Subjects to be discussed are: basic theory (thermodynamics and electrodynamics), primary machinery types, automation systems and data transmission, typical faults and condition monitoring techniques that are also often used in tandem with ML. Additionally, the basic theory on the main machine learning techniques related to malfunction prediction is going to be briefly presented

Dexterous grippers: between simple industrial grippers and complex robotic hands

This thesis addresses the issue of introducing dexterity, namely the ability to manipulate objects in hand, into simple mechanical grippers. Among the many possibilities to give dexterity to a gripping device we opted to intervene at the finger-pad surface since it is the part of the end effector directly in contact with the object to be manipulated. The first contribution is the development of an under-actuated gripper with Active Surfaces on the inner side of the fingers which allow to in-hand manipulate the grasped objects. The gripper, named Velvet Fingers, was designed from the theoretical concepts, manufactured, assembled and then turned into an applicative scenario. A second main contribution of this thesis, carried out in collaboration with AASS Research Center, of the University of \"Orebro (Sweden), is a grasp execution routine using the Active Surfaces of the Velvet Fingers to achieve a robust power grasp starting from an initial fingertip grasp. This routine is very useful and effective in cluttered environment where an initial fingertip grasp is much more likely to be feasible than a bulky power grasp. The third main contribution is the development of a small gripper for small household objects such as cans, small bottles, little boxes, tennis balls etc. This gripper, named Velvet-II, is able to perform in-hand manipulation tasks, to elicit information from the grasped object, namely the contact point location and the components of the grasping forces and to detect incipient slippage between the gripper and the object. Within a collaboration with AASS Research Center the gripper has been employed on a robotic platform for autonomous picking and palletizing

A Survey on Industrial Control System Testbeds and Datasets for Security Research

The increasing digitization and interconnection of legacy Industrial Control Systems (ICSs) open new vulnerability surfaces, exposing such systems to malicious attackers. Furthermore, since ICSs are often employed in critical infrastructures (e.g., nuclear plants) and manufacturing companies (e.g., chemical industries), attacks can lead to devastating physical damages. In dealing with this security requirement, the research community focuses on developing new security mechanisms such as Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs), facilitated by leveraging modern machine learning techniques. However, these algorithms require a testing platform and a considerable amount of data to be trained and tested accurately. To satisfy this prerequisite, Academia, Industry, and Government are increasingly proposing testbed (i.e., scaled-down versions of ICSs or simulations) to test the performances of the IDSs. Furthermore, to enable researchers to cross-validate security systems (e.g., security-by-design concepts or anomaly detectors), several datasets have been collected from testbeds and shared with the community. In this paper, we provide a deep and comprehensive overview of ICSs, presenting the architecture design, the employed devices, and the security protocols implemented. We then collect, compare, and describe testbeds and datasets in the literature, highlighting key challenges and design guidelines to keep in mind in the design phases. Furthermore, we enrich our work by reporting the best performing IDS algorithms tested on every dataset to create a baseline in state of the art for this field. Finally, driven by knowledge accumulated during this survey's development, we report advice and good practices on the development, the choice, and the utilization of testbeds, datasets, and IDSs

Being a black mine worker in South Africa: the case of Anglo Platinum Mine

This thesis presents a decolonial perspective on the experience of being a black mineworker in post-apartheid South Africa with specific reference to the Platinum Belt. It seeks to understand what it means to be a black mineworker by unmasking and analysing the existence and prevalence of coloniality in contemporary South Africa despite the end of formal colonialism (i.e. apartheid). As a world-wide system, coloniality has different dimensions which all speak to and highlight continuities between the period of colonialism and the post-colonial period. These dimensions are coloniality of power, coloniality of being and coloniality of knowledge. The power structure of coloniality produces and reproduces the identity of the black mineworker in present-day South Africa as a sub-ontological being devoid of an authentic humanity such that the mineworker is depicted as incapable of rational thought and knowledge. The existential condition of the black mineworker is symptomatic of the generic experience of being a racialised subject of colour in the current global power structure predicated on the dominance and hegemony of Western-centred modernity. The black mineworker exists on the darker side of Western-centred modernity, living a life of wretchedness and continuing to suffer the colonial wound in the absence of formal colonialism and apartheid. The mineworker is disposable and dispensable and lives and works in the shadow of death. In pursuing this course of reasoning, I deploy the epistemic method of ‘shifting the geography of reason’ in order to read the experience of mineworkers in South Africa from the locus of enunciation of the oppressed subject within the scheme of a colonial power differential based on a hierarchy of humanity. This method allows me to speak with and from the perspective of the black mineworkers in the Platinum Belt as opposed to speaking for and about them. I reach the conclusion that being a platinum mineworker in post-apartheid South Africa is a racial and market determined identity of colonialised subjectivity that relegates the dominated subject (the black mineworker) to the realm of the subhuman. In setting the context for this claim, I trace the origins and development of the black mineworker in South Africa with reference to historical processes such as dispossession and proletarianisation. Empirically, the thesis is rooted in a contemporary case study of mainly Anglo Platinum Mine, which involved comprehensive fieldwork focusing on the present lived realities of platinum mineworkers. The dignity and humanity of these black mineworkers has still not returned despite twenty years of democratic rule in South Africa, such that race remains a crucial organising principle in postapartheid South Africa

Gas and grain : the conservation of networked industrial landscapes

This thesis examines the networked industrial landscapes of Cape Town's nineteenth century gas supply industry, and South Africa's twentieth century grain elevator system. The thesis takes the view that, although created in very differing circumstances, both networks were explicitly constructed with the purpose of social and economic development, albeit for narrowly defined constituencies. In both cases, important component sites of these networks came to the end of their working lives during the course of this research. The Woodstock gas works has since been demolished, and the Cape Town grain elevator stands derelict. The principle question of this thesis asks whether the networks of which these sites formed an integral part, can be conserved with the purpose of future social and economic development within the broad framework of Agenda 21. Working within a methodological framework informed by the Kerr's Conservation Plan work, research was conducted which would provide a thorough understanding of the networks, allowing for an assessment of cultural significance, an awareness of issues that might affect that significance, and the formulation of policies for retention. Extensive desk-based study, archival research, and fieldwork was carried out at the Woodstock gas works, the Cape Town grain elevator, and the surviving country grain elevators that comprise the respective networks. Both the key sites were recorded during their final days of operation, with a detailed site inventory being created for the Cape Town grain elevator, together with an inventory of sites for the country elevators. It was found that the attitude to industrial heritage is changing rapidly, but that it is heavily influenced by aesthetic and economic considerations. The Woodstock gas works was demolished, and the site cleared, with very little active consideration being given to its conservation. By way of contrast, the Cape Town grain elevator, now derelict, has been the subject of a draft Conservation Plan, albeit one prepared without public participation. The process has stalled as the developer attempts to reconcile aesthetic and economic drivers with a publicly held commitment to the conservation, and marketing, of 'heritage'. The thesis concludes by proposing a new approach to dealing with networked industrial landscapes. It suggests that the surviving country elevators can not only be put to good use for the purpose of sustainable development in terms of Agenda 21, but that the network which historically links them to the Cape Town elevator could itself be re-established in the cause of social transformation

Gas and grain : the conservation of networked industrial landscapes

This thesis examines the networked industrial landscapes of Cape Town's nineteenth century gas supply industry, and South Africa's twentieth century grain elevator system. The thesis takes the view that, although created in very differing circumstances, both networks were explicitly constructed with the purpose of social and economic development, albeit for narrowly defined constituencies. In both cases, important component sites of these networks came to the end of their working lives during the course of this research. The Woodstock gas works has since been demolished, and the Cape Town grain elevator stands derelict. The principle question of this thesis asks whether the networks of which these sites formed an integral part, can be conserved with the purpose of future social and economic development within the broad framework of Agenda 21. Working within a methodological framework informed by the Kerr's Conservation Plan work, research was conducted which would provide a thorough understanding of the networks, allowing for an assessment of cultural significance, an awareness of issues that might affect that significance, and the formulation of policies for retention. Extensive desk-based study, archival research, and fieldwork was carried out at the Woodstock gas works, the Cape Town grain elevator, and the surviving country grain elevators that comprise the respective networks. Both the key sites were recorded during their final days of operation, with a detailed site inventory being created for the Cape Town grain elevator, together with an inventory of sites for the country elevators. It was found that the attitude to industrial heritage is changing rapidly, but that it is heavily influenced by aesthetic and economic considerations. The Woodstock gas works was demolished, and the site cleared, with very little active consideration being given to its conservation. By way of contrast, the Cape Town grain elevator, now derelict, has been the subject of a draft Conservation Plan, albeit one prepared without public participation. The process has stalled as the developer attempts to reconcile aesthetic and economic drivers with a publicly held commitment to the conservation, and marketing, of 'heritage'. The thesis concludes by proposing a new approach to dealing with networked industrial landscapes. It suggests that the surviving country elevators can not only be put to good use for the purpose of sustainable development in terms of Agenda 21, but that the network which historically links them to the Cape Town elevator could itself be re-established in the cause of social transformation