METHODOLOGY FOR ON-LINE BATTERY HEALTH MONITORING

The growing demand for electric vehicles and renewable energy sources has increased the need for safe, reliable, and cost-effective energy-storage systems, many of which include batteries. The reliability and efficiency of these battery-based systems can be significantly improved using intelligent energy-management systems that effectively indicate battery health in real time. On-line monitoring can be difficult, however, because batteries are non-linear and time-varying systems whose characteristics depend on temperature, usage history, and other factors. The key metrics of interest in a battery are its remaining capacity and health. Most of the current methods require off-line measurement, and even the available on-line methods are only good in laboratory conditions. This thesis provides an enhanced streamlined framework for on-line monitoring. In this methodology, a non-intrusive test signal is superimposed upon a battery load which causes transient dynamics inside the battery. The resulting voltage and current are used as test data and the estimation is done in two parts. First, a non-linear least-squares routine is used to estimate the electrical parameters of a battery model. Second, a state-estimation algorithm is used to estimate the open-circuit voltage. Experimental results obtained at consistent temperatures demonstrate that the open-circuit voltage and parameter values together can combine to provide capacity and health measurements. This approach requires minimal hardware and could form the basis for a robust on-line monitoring system

Design and verification of Guidance, Navigation and Control systems for space applications

In the last decades, systems have strongly increased their complexity in terms of number of functions that can be performed and quantity of relationships between functions and hardware as well as interactions of elements and disciplines concurring to the definition of the system. The growing complexity remarks the importance of defining methods and tools that improve the design, verification and validation of the system process: effectiveness and costs reduction without loss of confidence in the final product are the objectives that have to be pursued. Within the System Engineering context, the modern Model and Simulation based approach seems to be a promising strategy to meet the goals, because it reduces the wasted resources with respect to the traditional methods, saving money and tedious works. Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) starts from the idea that it is possible at any moment to verify, through simulation sessions and according to the phase of the life cycle, the feasibility, the capabilities and the performances of the system. Simulation is used during the engineering process and can be classified from fully numerical (i.e. all the equipment and conditions are reproduced as virtual model) to fully integrated hardware simulation (where the system is represented by real hardware and software modules in their operational environment). Within this range of simulations, a few important stages can be defined: algorithm in the loop (AIL), software in the loop (SIL), controller in the loop (CIL), hardware in the loop (HIL), and hybrid configurations among those. The research activity, in which this thesis is inserted, aims at defining and validating an iterative methodology (based on Model and Simulation approach) in support of engineering teams and devoted to improve the effectiveness of the design and verification of a space system with particular interest in Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) subsystem. The choice of focusing on GNC derives from the common interest and background of the groups involved in this research program (ASSET at Politecnico di Torino and AvioSpace, an EADS company). Moreover, GNC system is sufficiently complex (demanding both specialist knowledge and system engineer skills) and vital for whatever spacecraft and, last but not least the verification of its behavior is difficult on ground because strong limitations on dynamics and environment reproduction arise. Considering that the verification should be performed along the entire product life cycle, a tool and a facility, a simulator, independent from the complexity level of the test and the stage of the project, is needed. This thesis deals with the design of the simulator, called StarSim, which is the real heart of the proposed methodology. It has been entirely designed and developed from the requirements definition to the software implementation and hardware construction, up to the assembly, integration and verification of the first simulator release. In addition, the development of this technology met the modern standards on software development and project management. StarSim is a unique and self-contained platform: this feature allows to mitigate the risk of incompatibility, misunderstandings and loss of information that may arise using different software, simulation tools and facilities along the various phases. Modularity, flexibility, speed, connectivity, real time operation, fidelity with real world, ease of data management, effectiveness and congruence of the outputs with respect to the inputs are the sought-after features in the StarSim design. For every iteration of the methodology, StarSim guarantees the possibility to verify the behavior of the system under test thanks to the permanent availability of virtual models, that substitute all those elements not yet available and all the non-reproducible dynamics and environmental conditions. StarSim provides a furnished and user friendly database of models and interfaces that cover different levels of detail and fidelity, and supports the updating of the database allowing the user to create custom models (following few, simple rules). Progressively, pieces of the on board software and hardware can be introduced without stopping the process of design and verification, avoiding delays and loss of resources. StarSim has been used for the first time with the CubeSats belonging to the e-st@r program. It is an educational project carried out by students and researchers of the “CubeSat Team Polito” in which StarSim has been mainly used for the payload development, an Active Attitude Determination and Control System, but StarSim’s capabilities have also been updated to evaluate functionalities, operations and performances of the entire satellite. AIL, SIL, CIL, HIL simulations have been performed along all the phases of the project, successfully verifying a great number of functional and operational requirements. In particular, attitude determination algorithms, control laws, modes of operation have been selected and verified; software has been developed step by step and the bugs-free executable files have been loaded on the micro-controller. All the interfaces and protocols as well as data and commands handling have been verified. Actuators, logic and electrical circuits have been designed, built and tested and sensors calibration has been performed. Problems such as real time and synchronization have been solved and a complete hardware in the loop simulation test campaign both for A-ADCS standalone and for the entire satellite has been performed, verifying the satisfaction of a great number of CubeSat functional and operational requirements. The case study represents the first validation of the methodology with the first release of StarSim. It has been proven that the methodology is effective in demonstrating that improving the design and verification activities is a key point to increase the confidence level in the success of a space mission

Highly redundant and fault tolerant actuator system: control, condition monitoring and experimental validation

This thesis is concerned with developing a control and condition monitoring system for a class of fault tolerant actuators with high levels of redundancy. The High Redundancy Actuator (HRA) is a concept inspired by biomimetics that aims to provide fault tolerance using relatively large numbers of actuation elements which are assembled in parallel and series configurations to form a single actuator. Each actuation element provides a small contribution to the overall force and displacement of the system. Since the capability of each actuation element is small, the effect of faults within the individual element of the overall system is also small. Hence, the HRA will gracefully degrade instead of going from fully functional to total failure in the presence of faults. Previous research on HRA using electromechanical technology has focused on a relatively low number of actuation elements (i.e. 4 elements), which were controlled with multiple loop control methods. The objective of this thesis is to expand upon this, by considering an HRA with a larger number of actuation elements (i.e. 12 elements). First, a mathematical model of a general n-by-m HRA is derived from first principles. This method can be used to represent any size of electromechanical HRA with actuation elements arranged in a matrix form. Then, a mathematical model of a 4-by-3 HRA is obtained from the general n-by-m model and verified experimentally using the HRA test rig. This actuator model is then used as a foundation for the controller design and condition monitoring development. For control design, two classical and control method-based controllers are compared with an H_infinity approach. The objective for the control design is to make the HRA track a position demand signal in both health and faulty conditions. For the classical PI controller design, the first approach uses twelve local controllers (1 per actuator) and the second uses only a single global controller. For the H_infinity control design, a mixed sensitivity functions is used to obtain good tracking performance and robustness to modelling uncertainties. Both of these methods demonstrate good tracking performance, with a slower response in the presence of faults. As expected, the H_infinity control method's robustness to modelling uncertainties, results in a smaller performance degradation in the presence of faults, compared with the classical designs. Unlike previous work, the thesis also makes a novel contribution to the condition monitoring of HRA. The proposed algorithm does not require the use of multiple sensors. The condition monitoring scheme is based on least-squares parameter estimation and fuzzy logic inference. The least-squares parameter estimation estimates the physical parameters of the electromechanical actuator based on input-output data collected from real-time experiments, while the fuzzy logic inference determines the health condition of the actuator based on the estimated physical parameters. Hence, overall, a new approach to both control and monitoring of an HRA is proposed and demonstrated on a twelve elements HRA test rig

An apparatus for high throughput muscle cell experimentation

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Biological Engineering Division, 2006.MIT Science Library copy: printed in pages versus leaves.Also issued in pages.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 183-197).The cardiac ventricular muscle cell (myocyte) is a key experimental system for exploring the mechanical properties of the diseased and healthy heart. The myocyte experimental model provides a higher level of physiological relevance than molecular or myofibril studies while avoiding problems inherent to multicellular preparations including heterogeneity of cell types and diffusion limited extracellular spaces. Millions of primary myocytes that remain viable for four to six hours can be readily isolated from animal models. However, the mechanical properties of only a few physically loaded myocytes can be explored in this time period using current, bulky and expensive instrumentation. In this thesis, a prototype instrument is described that is modular and inexpensive and could form the basis of an array of devices for probing the mechanical properties of single mammnalian myocytes in parallel. This would greatly increase the throughput of scientific experimentation and could be applied as a high content screening instrument in the pharmaceutical industry providing information at the level of a critical cellular phenotype, myocyte mechanical properties, for drug development and toxicology studies.(cont.) The design, development and experimental verification of the modular instrument are presented here. The mathematical, mechanical and electrical characteristics of the novel force sensor and actuator system, Ho control implementation and data processing methodology are discussed. Finally, the functionality of the instrument is demonstrated by implementing novel methodologies for loading and attaching healthy, single mammalian ventricular myocytes to the force sensor and actuator and measuring their isometric twitch force and passive dynamic stiffness at varied sarcomere lengths.by Michael G. Garcia-Webb.Ph.D

Summary of Research 1994

The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.This report contains 359 summaries of research projects which were carried out under funding of the Naval Postgraduate School Research Program. A list of recent publications is also included which consists of conference presentations and publications, books, contributions to books, published journal papers, and technical reports. The research was conducted in the areas of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Meteorology, National Security Affairs, Oceanography, Operations Research, Physics, and Systems Management. This also includes research by the Command, Control and Communications (C3) Academic Group, Electronic Warfare Academic Group, Space Systems Academic Group, and the Undersea Warfare Academic Group

Six Decades of Flight Research: An Annotated Bibliography of Technical Publications of NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, 1946-2006

Titles, authors, report numbers, and abstracts are given for nearly 2900 unclassified and unrestricted technical reports and papers published from September 1946 to December 2006 by the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and its predecessor organizations. These technical reports and papers describe and give the results of 60 years of flight research performed by the NACA and NASA, from the X-1 and other early X-airplanes, to the X-15, Space Shuttle, X-29 Forward Swept Wing, X-31, and X-43 aircraft. Some of the other research airplanes tested were the D-558, phase 1 and 2; M-2, HL-10 and X-24 lifting bodies; Digital Fly-By-Wire and Supercritical Wing F-8; XB-70; YF-12; AFTI F-111 TACT and MAW; F-15 HiDEC; F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle, F-18 Systems Research Aircraft and the NASA Landing Systems Research aircraft. The citations of reports and papers are listed in chronological order, with author and aircraft indices. In addition, in the appendices, citations of 270 contractor reports, more than 200 UCLA Flight System Research Center reports, nearly 200 Tech Briefs, 30 Dryden Historical Publications, and over 30 videotapes are included

Participation d'un système de stockage à la stabilité des réseaux insulaires

Frequency of isolated microgrids is highly sensitive to active power variation of loads and productions because of the inertia equivalent of this grid is small (limited number of thermal generators). Furthermore, the increasing of renewable energy in this grid causes frequency more risky to be instable because of its intermittency of power. In this thesis, energy storage is the selected solution to maintain the frequency stability of isolated microgrids with high penetration rate of renewable energy. It will participate to the primary frequency control which is the first control that takes action to limit the frequency deviation after disturbance. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to design the appropriate size and strategy of energy storage in isolated microgrids with high penetration rate of photovoltaic. Proposed strategies will link to power variation of PV. Therefore, the different situations of photovoltaic power variations and their impacts on the system frequency had been firstly characterized and studied in order to specify the critical situation of frequency variation. Then, different strategies for energy storage and their sizes were defined from these two studies. The strategy limit dPpv diagram and filter strategy were proposed to define the participated power of energy storage in primary frequency control from the measured power variation of PV. Furthermore, controller H infinity which is robust control was also proposed. Finally, energy storage control system was validated by RTLAB (real time simulation) which enable us to simulate the hardware. The results show that energy storage by proposed strategies is able to stabilize frequency of the power system by limiting the frequency deviation to be within an acceptable range after occurrence of any disturbance. The proposed strategies can increase larger participated power of the energy storage with less frequently than the classic droop control.Un réseau insulaire est un système fragile et sensible aux variations de charge ou de production notamment d'origine renouvelable et intermittent. Ce problème devient crucial avec l'augmentation dans ces réseaux de production éolien ou PV en remplacement des sources actuelles (diesel, etc.). Cela impacte directement la stabilité du réseau, notamment la fréquence. Les moyens de stockage pourraient dès lors participer au réglage primaire de la fréquence, en limitant des variations après une perturbation. L'objectif de cette thèse consiste ainsi à étudier la participation du stockage pour maintenir la stabilité en fréquence dans un réseau insulaire en augmentant le taux de pénétration d'énergie renouvelable. Un algorithme de dimensionnement et différentes stratégies de contrôle du système de stockage ont ainsi été développés en fonction de variations réellement observées sur un parc PV. Notre étude est séparée en 2 parties. La première partie concerne la modélisation de l'intermittence de la production PV. La puissance PV a ainsi été caractérisée en fonction de son impact sur la variation de la fréquence, afin de définir toute situation critique. Ensuite, la technologie et les critères de dimensionnement du dispositif de stockage et la stratégie de pilotage et de contrôle-commande pour surveiller et contrôler le système de stockage ont été proposés et validées à partir de simulations. Ces stratégies ont été élaborées soit à partir de critères qualitatifs définie dans le domaine temporel, soit à partir d'une stratégie de filtrage fréquentiel des différentes sources. Par ailleurs, pour garantir des critères de robustesse vis-à-vis des incertitudes paramétriques notamment sur la mesure des variations PV, une commande robuste (utilisant un contrôleur H infinie) a été conçu et validé. Les différentes stratégies proposées peuvent plus ou moins réduire la variation de la fréquence suite à perturbation et permettre de réduire significativement la participation de la source principale d'énergie au réglage de la fréquence. Par ailleurs, les résultats ont permis de faire un lien entre le taux de pénétration des énergies renouvelables photovoltaïques dans un micro réseau et la tenue en fréquence dans ce réseau