38 research outputs found
Industry 4.0 – LabVIEW Based Industrial IoT Condition Monitoring System
As a result of a substantial shift in focus towards a more digital industry, multiple sectors of industry are now realising the potential of Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The manufacturing industry in particular is subject to unexpected machine downtime from component wear over an extended period. With Industrial IoT (IIoT) technology implemented, there is the potential for gathering large quantities of data, which can be used for preventative maintenance. This research article addresses some of the technological requirements for developing an IoT industrial condition monitoring network, whose composition makes use of wireless devices along with conventional wired methods to enable a series of data capture and control operations in amongst a network of nodes. To provide a platform to host these operations, the industry standard fieldbus protocol Modbus TCP was used in conjunction with the LabVIEW development environment, where a bespoke graphical user interface was developed to provide control and a visual representation of the data collected. In addition, one of the nodes acted as the output for hardware displays, which in turn correlated the alarm status of the user interface. By using industry standard communication protocols, it was also possible to enable connectivity between real industry hardware, further extending the capabilities of the system
Morphing wing system integration with wind tunnel testing
Preserving the environment is a major challenge for today’s aviation industry. Within this context, the CRIAQ MDO 505 project started, where a multidisciplinary approach was used to improve aircraft fuel efficiency. This international project took place between several Canadian and Italian teams. Industrial teams are Bombardier Aerospace, Thales Canada and Alenia Aermacchi. The academic partners are from École de Technologie Supérieure, École Polytechnique de Montréal and Naples University. Teams from ‘CIRA’ and IAR-NRC research institutes had, also, contributed on this project.
The main objective of this project is to improve the aerodynamic performance of a morphing wing prototype by reducing the drag. This drag reduction is achieved by delaying the flow transition (from laminar to turbulent) by performing shape optimization of the flexible upper skin according to different flight conditions. Four linear axes, each one actuated by a 'BLDC' motor, are used to morph the skin. The skin displacements are calculated by ‘CFD’ numerical simulation based on flow parameters which are Mach number, the angle of attack and aileron’s angle of deflection. The wing is also equipped with 32 pressure sensors to experimentally detect the transition during aerodynamic testing in the subsonic wind tunnel at the IAR-NRC in Ottawa.
The first part of the work is dedicated to establishing the necessary fieldbus communications between the control system and the wing. The ‘CANopen’ protocol is implemented to ensure real time communication between the ‘BLDC’ drives and the real-time controller. The MODBUS TCP protocol is used to control the aileron drive.
The second part consists of implementing the skin control position loop based on the LVDTs feedback, as well as developing an automated calibration procedure for skin displacement values.
Two ‘sets’ of wind tunnel tests were carried out to, experimentally, investigate the morphing wing controller effect; these tests also offered the opportunity to validate the implemented control platform. Control and calibration results were excellent as they satisfied the desired objectives in terms of precision and robustness. The maximum static error obtained for the skin displacement control was 0.03 mm. The analysis of the pressure data and balance loads has shown that the drag was reduced for many cases among those tested. Almost 30% of the cases were optimized for drag reduction
Effectiveness of OPC for systems integration in the process control information architecture
A Process is defined as the progression to some particular end or objective through a logical and orderly sequence of events. Various devices (e.g., actuators, limit switches, motors, sensors, etc.) play a significant role in making sure that the process attains its objective (e.g., maintaining the furnace temperature within an acceptable limit). To do these things effectively, manufacturers need to access data from the plant floor or devices and integrate those into their control applications, which maybe one of the off the shelf tools such as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Distributed Control System (DCS), or Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). A number of vendors have devised their own Data Acquisition Networks or Process Control Architectures (e.g., PROFIBUS, DEVICENET, INTERBUS, ETHERNET I/P, etc.) that claim to be open to or interoperable with a number of third party devices or products that make process data available to the Process or Business Management level. In reality this is far from what it is claimed to be. Due to the problem of interoperability, a manufacturer is forced to be bound, either with the solutions provided by a single vendor or with the writing of a driver for each hardware device that is accessed by a process application. Today\u27s manufacturers are looking for advanced distributed object technologies that allow for seamless exchange of information across plant networks as a means of integrating the islands of automation that exist in their manufacturing operations. OLE for Process Control (OPC) works to significantly reduce the time, cost, and effort required in writing custom interfaces for hundreds of different intelligent devices and networks in use today. The objective of this thesis is to explore the OLE for Process Control (OPC) technology in depth by highlighting its need in industry and by using the OPC technology in an application in which data from a process controlled by Siemens Simatic S7 PLC are shared with a client application running in LabVTEW6i
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
Red Lan para supervisión remota y mantenimiento preventivo en la planta de producción
Proyecto de Graduación (Licenciatura en IngenierÃa Electrónica). Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica. Escuela de IngenierÃa Electrónica, 2006.El propósito del presente proyecto consiste en mejorar la eficiencia del
servicio de mantenimiento en la planta de los Laboratorios Stein. Esto permitirá
no solo un ahorro considerable de recursos para la empresa, sino asegurará
una mejor calidad de producción.
Existe un incremento en el uso de instrumentación con capacidad para
entregar información bajo condiciones de tiempo real empleando, en los últimos
15 años, sensores ultrasónicos e infrarrojos entre otros. Usualmente, el equipo
de mantenimiento de una empresa lleva los medidores y/o sensores al lugar de
la medición para luego descargar los datos en el sistema de mantenimiento.
Estos dispositivos de medición han sido instalados dentro de las mismas
máquinas y los datos son enviados a través de la red al servidor dedicado a la
recolección y manejo de los mismos. Los dispositivos cuentan con aplicaciones
que tienen capacidad de alertar al personal de mantenimiento y operación
acerca de variaciones en el funcionamiento, las cuales pueden bajar la
producción y/o la calidad del producto. Este tipo de tecnologÃas y capacidades
que predicen tanto a nivel de software, como de hardware le han dado valor
agregado a los procesos de mantenimiento permitiendo que se ahorre mucho
dinero a las empresas.
Se diseñó una red escalable de PLC capaz de llegar a abarcar todas las
máquinas crÃticas de la planta, al mismo tiempo se programó una aplicación
encargada de la toma de datos en tiempo real y de decisiones con base en
éstos. El programa indica cuando las máquinas están por llegar a puntos
crÃticos y deben recibir mantenimiento. El programa contiene alarmas que
indican cuando las máquinas llegan a sus valores crÃticos, además, envÃan un
correo electrónico al encargado de la misma. Los datos obtenidos serán
guardados en una base de datos de Oracle, para análisis posteriores
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
Smart Electrical and Thermal Energy Supply for Nearly Zero Energy Buildings
The European Union (EU) intends to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions to 80-95 %
below 1990 levels by 2050. To achieve this goal, the EU focuses on higher energy efficiency mainly within the building sector and a share of renewable energy sources (RES)
of around 30 % in gross final energy consumption by 2030. In this context, the concept
of nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEB) is both an emerging and relevant research area.
Balancing energy consumption with on-site renewable energy production in a cost-effective
manner requires to develop suitable energy management systems (EMS) using demandside
management strategies.
This thesis develops an EMS using certainty equivalent (CE) economic model predictive
control (EMPC) to optimally operate the building energy system with respect to varying
electricity prices. The proposed framework is a comprehensive mixed integer linear
programming model that uses suitable linearised grey box models and purely data-driven
model approaches to describe the system dynamics.
For this purpose, a laboratory prototype is available, which is capable of covering most
building-relevant types of energy, namely thermal and electrical energy. Thermal energy
for space heating, space cooling and domestic hot water is buffered in thermal energy
storage systems. A dual source heat pump provides thermal energy for space heating
and domestic hot water, whereas an underground ice storage covers space cooling. The
environmental energy sources of the heat pump are ice storage or wind infrared sensitive
collectors. The collectors are further used to regenerate the ice storage. Photovoltaic
panels produce electrical energy which can be stored in a battery storage system. The
electrical energy system is capable of selling and buying electricity from the public power
grid. The laboratory test bench interacts with a virtual building model which is integrated
into the building simulation software TRNSYS Simulation Studio.
The EMS prototype is tested and validated on the basis of various simulations and under
close to real-life laboratory conditions. The different test scenarios are generated using
the typical day approach for each season
Building energy metering and environmental monitoring - A state-of-the-art review and directions for future research
Buildings are responsible for 40% of global energy use and contribute towards 30% of the total CO2 emissions. The drive to reduce energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions from buildings has acted as a catalyst in the increasing installation of meters and sensors for monitoring energy use and indoor environmental conditions in buildings. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in building energy metering and environmental monitoring, including their social, economic, environmental and legislative drivers. The integration of meters and sensors with existing building energy management systems (BEMS) is critically appraised, especially with regard to communication technologies and protocols such as ModBus, M-Bus, Ethernet, Cellular, ZigBee, WiFi and BACnet. Findings suggest that energy metering is covered in existing policies and regulations in only a handful of countries. Most of the legislations and policies on energy metering in Europe are in response to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), 2002/91/EC. However, recent developments in policy are pointing towards more stringent metering requirements in future, moving away from voluntary to mandatory compliance. With regards to metering equipment, significant developments have been made in the recent past on miniaturisation, accuracy, robustness, data storage, ability to connect using multiple communication protocols, and the integration with BEMS and the Cloud – resulting in a range of available solutions, selection of which can be challenging. Developments in communication technologies, in particular in low-power wireless such as ZigBee and Bluetooth LE (BLE), are enabling cost-effective machine to machine (M2M) and internet of things (IoT) implementation of sensor networks. Privacy and data protection, however, remain a concern for data aggregators and end-users. The standardization of network protocols and device functionalities remains an active area of research and development, especially due to the prevalence of many protocols in the BEMS industry. Available solutions often lack interoperability between hardware and software systems, resulting in vendor lock-in. The paper provides a comprehensive understanding of available technologies for energy metering and environmental monitoring; their drivers, advantages and limitations; factors affecting their selection and future directions of research and development – for use a reference, as well as for generating further interest in this expanding research area