Development of D-Statcom in hardware in the loop system for voltage SAG mitigation

The problem of power quality (PQ) is of utmost concern today. The widespread use of electronic equipment such as adjustable speed drive (ASD), programmable logic controller (PLC), information technology equipment in power electronics applications such as energy-efficient lighting brings about a complete change in the nature of the electrical load. These loads are simultaneously major causes and major victims due to power quality problems. The most common types of power quality problems are voltage drops. The main causes of the voltage drop are due to a short circuit in the system, a switching operation, the starting of the large motor, a sudden increase in line loads, electrical fault on utility power lines caused by an animal, trees or other objects in contact with power lines. Therefore, this project is about to develop a Distributed Static Compensator (D-STATCOM) for voltage sag mitigation in hardware in the loop (HIL) with phase shift control technique for maintaining the bus bar-load voltage. It is because the intermittent switching of heavy loads results in voltage sag in the distribution line. The distribution line 400V and the D-STATCOM are modeled using MATLAB-SIMULINK software. In this work, the 6-pulse D-STATCOM configuration with IGBT has been designed. The HIL was develop using the low-cost microcontrollers which are the Arduino Mega 2560 and Raspberry Pi Type B2 with high accuracy response for high speed communication on mimic the real time response. In order to run the D-STATCOM in HIL and test the mitigation of sag, software design is first carried out to illustrate the use of D-STATCOM in mitigating voltage sag in a distribution line. The simulation results for software design proved that the D-STATCOM is capable of mitigating voltage sag as well as improving power quality of a system and the voltage sag 20% was corrected from 200V to normal voltage 245V. The D-STATCOM that has been modeled successfully and able to mitigate the voltage sag by using D-STATCOM in (HIL). At last the results have been analyzed and compared with the results which get in software

Fast Ground Filtering of Airborne LiDAR Data Based on Iterative Scan-Line Spline Interpolation

Over the last two decades, a wide range of applications have been developed from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) point clouds. Most LiDAR-derived products require the distinction between ground and non-ground points. Because of this, ground filtering its being one of the most studied topics in the literature and robust methods are nowadays available. However, these methods have been designed to work with offline data and they are generally not well suited for real-time scenarios. Aiming to address this issue, this paper proposes an efficient method for ground filtering of airborne LiDAR data based on scan-line processing. In our proposal, an iterative 1-D spline interpolation is performed in each scan line sequentially. The final spline knots of a scan line are taken into account for the next scan line, so that valuable 2-D information is also considered without compromising computational efficiency. Points are labelled into ground and non-ground by analysing their residuals to the final spline. When tested against synthetic ground truth, the method yields a mean kappa value of 88.59% and a mean total error of 0.50%. Experiments with real data also show satisfactory results under visual inspection. Performance tests on a workstation show that the method can process up to 1 million points per second. The original implementation was ported into a low-cost development board to demonstrate its feasibility to run in embedded systems, where throughput was improved by using programmable logic hardware acceleration. Analysis shows that real-time filtering is possible in a high-end board prototype, as it can process the amount of points per second that current lightweight scanners acquire with low-energy consumptionThis work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport, Government of Spain (Grant Number TIN2016-76373-P), the Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria (accreditation 2016–2019, ED431G/08, and ED431C 2018/2019), and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund—ERDF)S

A Fuzzy Logic-Based Approach for Estimation of Dwelling Times of Panama Metro Stations

Passenger flow modeling and station dwelling time estimation are significant elements for railway mass transit planning, but system operators usually have limited information to model the passenger flow. In this paper, an artificial-intelligence technique known as fuzzy logic is applied for the estimation of the elements of the origin-destination matrix and the dwelling time of stations in a railway transport system. The fuzzy inference engine used in the algorithm is based in the principle of maximum entropy. The approach considers passengers’ preferences to assign a level of congestion in each car of the train in function of the properties of the station platforms. This approach is implemented to estimate the passenger flow and dwelling times of the recently opened Line 1 of the Panama Metro. The dwelling times obtained from the simulation are compared to real measurements to validate the approach.The authors of this paper want to express their gratitude to the National Secretary of Science and Technology (SENACYT) of the Government of the Republic of Panama for funding this study through the R & D project (MDEPRB09-001). Additionally, they want to thank the support received from Technological University of Panama (UTP), the University of Granada, the Fundación Carolina and the Secretaría del Metro de Panamá (SMP)

Negotiating sustainability in urban development : the role of technical building equipment at das Eckwerk

Whether or not the buzz is justified, the technophilic concept of the smart city and its promise of unprecedented resource efficiency became the central urban paradigm of today. However, with a few notable exceptions - mostly in the form of prestigious smart or green buildings - the day-to-day praxis of local urban development carries forward its struggle to negotiate the expectations of the triple bottom line. While the advancement of eco-innovative technologies outpaces itself, the way buildings are planned, built, used and demolished has not changed significantly in recent history. Drawing on experiences from the planning of Das Eckwerk, a major bottom-up urban development initiative in Berlin, it is suggested that the bottleneck to sustainable urban development is not a lack of innovative technology but rather the linearity of value chains in real estate and architecture, which often disincentivize the most sensible solutions. With a focus on technical building equipment, this paper reports on the lessons learned of ‘developers by circumstance’ in quest of enabling investment and innovation. In line with the intellectual lineage of the performance economy, the adopted approach at Das Eckwerk is outlined in four stages: (a) a contextual analysis of locally available resources and capacities, (b) the reversal of the demand and supply logic, (c) a recognition of technologies in their life cycles of innovation, and (d) the early involvement of manufacturers in the planning process. Lastly, the structural implications this approach might entail, including a shift in professional roles from producers to service providers, are outlined

Infographics As a Tool for Improving Effectiveness of Education

This paper defines the criteria of effective infographics for education. Visualizing information, including that with the help of infographics, is one of the mechanisms to optimize the learning process both in traditional and online format. In the first part    of the paper, the author gives a theoretical definition of infographics as a contracted multi-level polysemantic thing. The methodological basis for discussion is provided by the cognitive approach in psyhology and philosophy (R. Arnheim, R. Solso, Y. Valkman) and visual studies (I. Itten, B. Latour, D.  Roem, H. Schiffman). Deriving  the properties of effective infographics, the author seeks to harmonize empirical  data and the results of theoretical studies. The infographic aspects formulated by E.Tafti, Priego, and F. Verbitsky are compared with the results of a survey by L. Harrison on the aesthetic properties of effective infographics. Features of infographics such as scalability, structure-based, focusing on the key points, visual simplicity, and emphasis on the relationship between elements, are by author defined. The difference between infographics and other graphical products is demonstrated. For education it is particularly important that the logic of a structure or image ensures the contraction of information. In turn, the contracted information looks compact and concise. ”Real” infographics have a visual clarity, presence of composition, colour, and image-bearing reference points. Systematic manner enhances the process of developing additional meanings. Aesthetics of the designer‘s infographics represent the reverse side of expediency and logic of a project decision. Th3e article concludes with a discussion of the need to use a cognitive approach to infographics by designers who create effective educational products. Keywords: design, graphic design, infographics, definition of infographics, infographics for the on-line course, participatory design, surve

Adaptive Non-singleton Type-2 Fuzzy Logic Systems: A Way Forward for Handling Numerical Uncertainties in Real World Applications

Real world environments are characterized by high levels of linguistic and numerical uncertainties. A Fuzzy Logic System (FLS) is recognized as an adequate methodology to handle the uncertainties and imprecision available in real world environments and applications. Since the invention of fuzzy logic, it has been applied with great success to numerous real world applications such as washing machines, food processors, battery chargers, electrical vehicles, and several other domestic and industrial appliances. The first generation of FLSs were type-1 FLSs in which type-1 fuzzy sets were employed. Later, it was found that using type-2 FLSs can enable the handling of higher levels of uncertainties. Recent works have shown that interval type-2 FLSs can outperform type-1 FLSs in the applications which encompass high uncertainty levels. However, the majority of interval type-2 FLSs handle the linguistic and input numerical uncertainties using singleton interval type-2 FLSs that mix the numerical and linguistic uncertainties to be handled only by the linguistic labels type-2 fuzzy sets. This ignores the fact that if input numerical uncertainties were present, they should affect the incoming inputs to the FLS. Even in the papers that employed non-singleton type-2 FLSs, the input signals were assumed to have a predefined shape (mostly Gaussian or triangular) which might not reflect the real uncertainty distribution which can vary with the associated measurement. In this paper, we will present a new approach which is based on an adaptive non-singleton interval type-2 FLS where the numerical uncertainties will be modeled and handled by non-singleton type-2 fuzzy inputs and the linguistic uncertainties will be handled by interval type-2 fuzzy sets to represent the antecedents’ linguistic labels. The non-singleton type-2 fuzzy inputs are dynamic and they are automatically generated from data and they do not assume a specific shape about the distribution associated with the given sensor. We will present several real world experiments using a real world robot which will show how the proposed type-2 non-singleton type-2 FLS will produce a superior performance to its singleton type-1 and type-2 counterparts when encountering high levels of uncertainties.</jats:p

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