Remote control and monitoring of power systems

Includes synopsis.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-93).Power systems are typically complex and can be affected by their environment in ways that cannot be completely predicted by their designers. It is thus imperative that monitoring is considered as part of the design of new power systems. Due to the associated costs of maintenance, repair, and downtime, monitoring these systems is particularly important when the installations are remote. Remote locations benefit greatly from renewable energy sources. As a result, this work focuses on a novel Hybrid Inverter system developed by Optimal Power Solutions Pty. Ltd. (OPS). This system uses renewable energy sources, grid power, and diesel generators together with a bi-directional inverter to supply a remote location with grid-quality power

Minimum Cycle Time Analysis of Ethernet-Based Real-Time Protocols

The Ethernet standard is a standard solution for interconnecting industrial devices despite its intrinsic drawbacks, particularly its nondeterministic medium access method. Many Ethernet-based commercial solutions available (COTS - Components Off the Shelves) on the market guarantee time performance. This means that user selection of one particular solution is a critical decision, but the choice often depends more on political strategizing with an industrial device manufacturer than on the intrinsic performance of Ethernet-based interfaces. The objective of this paper is to provide a formal behavioural analysis of each Ethernet-based solution, in order to facilitate comparison

Application of Advanced Early Warning Systems with Adaptive Protection

This project developed and field-tested two methods of Adaptive Protection systems utilizing synchrophasor data. One method detects conditions of system stress that can lead to unintended relay operation, and initiates a supervisory signal to modify relay response in real time to avoid false trips. The second method detects the possibility of false trips of impedance relays as stable system swings “encroach” on the relays’ impedance zones, and produces an early warning so that relay engineers can re-evaluate relay settings. In addition, real-time synchrophasor data produced by this project was used to develop advanced visualization techniques for display of synchrophasor data to utility operators and engineers

Electrical Machines Monitoring System – an approach based on Internet of Things

The fast improvement of the Internet and related technological advances, in particular with respect to the connection with physical smart objects, has opened new viewpoints and new possibilities for connection improvements that can deeply affect the general public. This dissertation presents a system that allows the handling of all educational necessities regarding the working state of any induction machine, as it allows the students to visualize and monitor all the induction motor’s working variables such as voltage, current, power, torque, frequency, as well as providing the students with real-time charts of these variables. Furthermore, all variables related to the motor’s energy consumption and power used are shown, as well as the variables related to the control system and PID controller. The students can also monitor the thermal working state of the induction motor, which allows safer trials due to a more effective temperature monitor of the induction motor. Additionally, the students can control the characteristics of the induction motor’s trials, as the system allows start/stop commands of the machine through several buttons, where the user has to define the induction motor’s reference speed (in Hz), or the motor speed (in rpm) and the acceleration/deceleration times (time in seconds, the machines takes from 0 to 50 Hz and from 50 Hz to 0 respectively), the user can also define the rotor’s direction. A module of the DIN VDE 0530 induction motor standard was also developed, which allows the user to see the induction motor’s performance in all different working duties. Due to its versatility, this system could be a strong tool with E-learning properties. These tools include a website developed specifically for the monitoring and control of the induction motor

Development of a User Interface to Communicate with Virtual Delta Robot using Modbus TCP/IP and C#

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Business and Technology at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Armin Maraghehmoghaddam on May 1, 2016

Emulating Industrial Control System Field Devices Using Gumstix Technology

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) have an inherent lack of security and situational awareness capabilities at the field device level. Yet these systems comprise a significant portion of the nation\u27s critical infrastructure. Currently, there is little insight into the characterization of attacks on ICS. Stuxnet provided an initial look at the type of tactics that can be employed to create physical damage via cyber means. The question still remains, however, as to the extent of malware and attacks that are targeting the critical infrastructure, along with the various methods employed to target systems associated with the ICS environment. This research presents a device using Gumstix technology that emulates an ICS field device. The emulation device is low-cost, adaptable to myriad ICS environments and provides logging capabilities at the field device level. The device was evaluated to ensure conformity to RFC standards and that the operating characteristics are consistent with actual field devices

Utilizing Reinforcement Learning and Computer Vision in a Pick-And-Place Operation for Sorting Objects in Motion

This master's thesis studies the implementation of advanced machine learning (ML) techniques in industrial automation systems, focusing on applying machine learning to enable and evolve autonomous sorting capabilities in robotic manipulators. In particular, Inverse Kinematics (IK) and Reinforcement Learning (RL) are investigated as methods for controlling a UR10e robotic arm for pick-and-place of moving objects on a conveyor belt within a small-scale sorting facility. A camera-based computer vision system applying YOLOv8 is used for real-time object detection and instance segmentation. Perception data is utilized to ascertain optimal grip points, specifically through an implemented algorithm that outputs optimal grip position, angle, and width. As the implemented system includes testing and evaluation on a physical system, the intricacies of hardware control, specifically the reverse engineering of an OnRobot RG6 gripper is elaborated as part of this study. The system is implemented on the Robotic Operating System (ROS), and its design is in particular driven by high modularity and scalability in mind. The camera-based vision system serves as the primary input, while the robot control is the output. The implemented system design allows for the evaluation of motion control employing both IK and RL. Computation of IK is conducted via MoveIt2, while the RL model is trained and computed in NVIDIA Isaac Sim. The high-level control of the robotic manipulator was accomplished with use of Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO). The main result of the research is a novel reward function for the pick-and-place operation that takes into account distance and orientation from the target object. In addition, the provided system administers task control by independently initializing pick-and-place operation phases for each environment. The findings demonstrate that PPO was able to significantly enhance the velocity, accuracy, and adaptability of industrial automation. Our research shows that accurate control of the robot arm can be reached by training the PPO Model purely by applying a digital twin simulation