Adaptive position control of DC motor for brush-based photovoltaic cleaning system automation

In this paper, we have developed an automatic brush-based PV cleaning system to control and synchronize the 3 motors together with a smooth periodic of cleaning while moving it horizontally over the PV surface. The mechanical design involved installing linear guides at the top and bottom of the rail to support the aluminium plate that holds the carrier motors and rotating brush. Two different movements of translational and rotational motion of the motors are managed by an algorithm programmed in Arduino Mega. In investigating the performance of motor parameters and dust removal rate, we conducted an experiment by spreading dry sand over the PV surface. Results showed that the torque of the cleaning brush motor increases with the increase in load. The obtained torque of the carrier motor was found to be 9.167 Nm (> stall torque, 9.8 Nm) with a full load of 18 brushes. The torque is inversely proportional to the speed but directly proportional to power. The required power to move the 2.93 kg of cleaning system was 19.20 W with 3.015 Nm of torque. The system achieved 86.8% of the dust removal rate from the four cycles of cleaning operation

Pembangunan model sistem sanitasi, perparitan dan pembentungan sebagai alat bahan bantu dalam subjek sistem sanitasi, perparitan dan pembentungan

Dengan perkembangan teknologi kini, salah satu pendekatan pengajaran yang baharu adalah menggunakan model. Kajian ini dijalankan untuk membangunkan satu model iaitu Model Sistem Sanitasi, Perparitan dan Pembentungan sebagai alat bahan bantu mengajar (ABBM) dalam subjek Sistem Sanitasi, Perparitan dan Pembentungan dalam kalangan guru dan pelajar dalam bidang Teknologi Pembinaan. Objektif kajian ini adalah membangunkan model Sistem Sanitasi, Perparitan dan Pembentungan yang sesuai dari segi bahan dan reka bentuk serta menguji kebolehfungsiannya sebagai ABBM bagi subjek Sistem Sanitasi, Perparitan dan Pembentungan. Data yang diperolehi dalam kajian ini pula adalah hasil analisis data yang dibuat menggunakan borang soal selidik. Analisis data dalam kajian ini secara manual dengan menggunakan kalkulator dan dipersembahkan dalam bentuk peratusan dan taburan kekerapan. Pengkaji telah memilih lima orang responden yang pakar dalam subjek Sistem Sanitasi, Perparitan dan Pembentungan untuk menjadi sampel kajian. Melalui hasil analisis data menunjukkan bahawa responden bersetuju bahawa model ini sesuai dibangunkan dan boleh digunakan sebagai ABBM dalam subjek Sistem Sanitasi, Perparitan dan Pembentunga

Thinking Styles among Technical Students in TVET: Differences in Thinking Styles by Students' Demographic

A thinking style is the way an individual acquires, processes and organises information, as well as forming ideas and views, solving problems, making decisions and articulating self-expression. Each individual has his or her own style of thinking in learning, solving problems, or even in designing products. The purpose of this study is to analyse the pattern of Chua thinking styles among technical students. A total of 351 technical students comprising of Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering students at Sultan Abdul Halim Muad'zam Shah Polytechnic were randomly selected as the study sample. The design of this study was a form of survey study using a quantitative approach. The Yan Piaw Creative-Critical Styles Test, developed by Chua (2004), was used as the research instrument. Data were analysed using SPSS software and presented in the form of mean, frequency, and percentage. The findings show that the dominant thinking style is the balanced thinking style, with 166 respondents (47.3%). It is followed by the critical thinking style in 153 respondents (43.6%) and the creative thinking style in 32 respondents (9.1%). However, none of the students has a high creative thinking style and a high critical thinking style. The findings also show that there is no statistically significant difference in Chua thinking styles by gender, age, years of study and field of study. In general, it can be concluded that technical students are most inclined to a balanced thinking style, which is to have a balanced thinking in terms of creative and critical thinking styles. As such, an individual's thinking style will have an impact on learning to solve problems in product design

Effectiveness of Integration of Learning Strategies and Higher-Order Thinking Skills for Generating Ideas Among Technical Students

Learning strategies and higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) play an important role in higher education learning. Every student as different preferences and strengths in learning strategies and HOTS, thus it can be a stimulus for developing new ways of learning. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of the integration of learning strategies and HOTS in generating ideas via a self-instructional manual among technical students. This quantitative approach research used the modified quasi-experimental design with a treatment group (TG) and a control group (CG) comprising 81 students. The pre- and post-individual assignments and assessment analytic rubric were used as the research instruments. The pre- and post-assignments were used to test the effectiveness of the integration of learning strategies and HOTS in generating ideas before and after treatment was given to TG students. The assessment analytic rubric was used to evaluate the pre- and post-assignments based on five evaluation criteria (ideas, designs, functions, materials and dimensions). Each TG student received a self-instructional manual for the integration of Kolb’s learning strategies and Marzano’s HOTS as a treatment for one month, while the CG students had no treatment but conventional teaching. The gathered data were analysed using SPSS software. The findings show that there are statistically significant differences between TG and CG on the five evaluation criteria for the individual post-assignment result. There are also statistically significant differences in the five evaluation criteria between the individual pre- and post-assignments results. Overall, the approach of integrating learning strategies and HOTS by using a self-instructional manual for generating ideas is significantly effective

Development of power system dynamic equivalents toolbox for digital type power system simulator

The aim of this research is to develop a power system dynamic equivalents toolbox (PSDYNET) for digital type power system simulator. In dynamics study of large power system, it is of the essence to represent the external system by means of dynamic equivalents with the intention of improve the solution speed and to reduce the problem into a solvable size

Integration of Learning Styles and Higher Order Thinking Skills among Technical Students

Learning styles and higher order thinking skills (HOTS) play an important role in higher education learning.  They represent different individual preferences and strengths in learning and can be a stimuli for developing new ways of learning.  This is because KBAT can increase an individual’s ability to observe and process new information while learning style is a method of observation and process the information that occurs in the individual. The purpose of this research was to identify the pattern of Kolb Learning Styles among the technical students based on demographic factors and identify the patterns of Marzano HOTS usage based on Kolb learning styles. The design of this study was descriptive with a quantitative approach. A total of 163 technical students from Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) were random cluster selected as samples. The Kolb Learning Styles Inventory and assessment rubric were used as research instruments. The findings indicated that the most dominant learning style among technical students is Doer and followed by Feeler, Thinker and Watcher. The patterns of learning styles based on demographic factors are the same.  The findings showed that the most widely used Marzano HOTS by all four types of Kolb Learning Styles are comparison and induction. Besides that, the findings revealed that there is no statistically significant difference in Kolb Learning Styles on the usage of Marzano HOTS. Therefore, the differences in learning styles do not affect the usage of HOTS. The implication of the integration of Kolb's learning styles and HOTS Marzano have the potential to bring two simultaneous benefits to students in terms of achievement of ideas generation

Analisis keperluan gaya berfikir dan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi bagi menyelesaikan masalah dalam penghasilan produk

Penyelesaian masalah merupakan suatu kaedah yang praktis yang bertujuan untuk menjana pelbagai idea yang bernas untuk membentuk beberapa penyelesaian yang lebih paktikal dan efektif. Penghasilan sesuatu idea dalam penghasilan produk memerlukan pemikiran yang kompleks iaitu kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (KBAT) seperti kemahiran menyelesaikan masalah, mereka, menganalisis, menilai dan sebagainya untuk memproses maklumat yang diperoleh

Development of dynamic equivalents for interconnected power systems using identification approaches

Development of dynamic equivalents for interconnected power systems using identification approachesThis research presents new methods to develop power system dynamic equivalent for real time digital type power system simulator. Digital type power system simulators such as Power System Computer Aided Design/Electromagnetic Transient for Direct Current (PSCAD/EMTDC) plays an important role in cases where real time dynamic studies are required. In dynamic studies of large power system, it is vital to model the external system by their dynamic equivalents in order to retain the dynamic characteristics of the original power system as well as to reduce the problem to a solvable size. The power system structures will include studied system (internal system) and dynamic equivalents system (external system). Two methods have been proposed to identify the dynamic equivalents, i.e. using the parametric and non-parametric identification methods. Parametric identification method is based on the line flow function of the original system. The active power (P) is utilised to estimate the dynamic parameters of the equivalent generators such as inertia constant (H), damping factor (D) and the transient reactance ( ' dx ), etc. In the non-parametric identification method, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) is employed to solve the hard task of constructing the dynamic equivalents. Both approaches are optimised by Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) and Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) algorithms, respectively. The performances of the dynamic equivalents resulting from the proposed methods are compared to its original networks. The analysis and discussions on both optimisations algorithms are also presented. The proposed methods have been verified through simple test systems and realistic TNB network model. Simulations have been performed using the in-house Matlab-based Power System Dynamic Equivalents Toolbox (PSDYNET) which contains power flow analysis, time domain simulation, and identification based dynamic equivalents program