Rapid Control Prototyping Platform for the Design of Control Systems for Automotive Electromechanical Actuators

This article introduces and discusses the development of a low-cost Rapid Control Prototyping Platform (RCPP). The aim of RCPP is to automate design of control algorithm of electromechanical actuators and simultaneous implementation it into a target microprocessor. The RCPP is stand-alone system containing software tools and electronic hardware in order to provide all development steps from system identification, model-based control design and code generation up to hardware implementation. The system can be used for development of a torque, speed or position controller for low power electromechanical actuators especially in the area of automotive application. The hardware of the platform is based on a 16-bit microcontroller and includes essential power semiconductor switches, sensors and communication interfaces. The presented RCPP system supports Real-Time-Work interface of MATLAB/Simulink and Calibration Protocol for CAN-Bus communication

Variable structure controller for plastic injection moulding system

This paper discusses the approach to design of combined ANN and PID temperature controller for a plastic injection moulding system. The proposed method is based on integration of a conventional PID (PI) controller and a multilayer ANN. At the initial stage of operation, the ANN is trained in offline mode to approximately identify the dynamic parameters of the regulator optimised in terms of speed of response and overshoot. Under routine operation mode the ANN control structure is responsible for the fast transients whereas PID (PI) controller provides the high accuracy at the steady state condition. The paper focuses on the structure switching mechanism and the influence on the transient accuracy. In order to verify the proposed approach, the control system having various types of heaters has been modelled and simulated in Matlab/Simulink. The data obtained from the experiment verified the developed model and confirmed the results of simulations

An ANN-based temperature controller for a plastic injection moulding system

This paper proposes an approach to an ANN-based temperature controller design for a plastic injection moulding system. This design approach is applied to the development of a controller based on a combination of a classical ANN and integrator. The controller provides a fast temperature response and zero steady-state error for three typical heaters (bar, nozzle, and cartridge) for a plastic moulding system. The simulation results in Matlab Simulink software and in comparison to an industrial PID regulator have shown the advantages of the controller, such as significantly less overshoot and faster transient (compared to PID with autotuning) for all examined heaters. In order to verify the proposed approach, the designed ANN controller was implemented and tested using an experimental setup based on an STM32 board

Artificial neural network motor control for full-electric injection moulding machine

This paper proposes a new artificial neural network-based position controller for a full-electric injection moulding machine. Such a controller improves the dynamic characteristics of the positioning for hot runners, pin valve and the injection motors for varying moulding parameters. Practical experimental data and Matlab’s System Identification Toolbox have been used to identify the transfer functions of the motors. The structure of the artificial neural network, which used positioning error and speed of error, was obtained by numerical modelling in Matlab/Simulink. The artificial neural network was trained using back-propagation algorithms to provide control of the motor current thus ensuring the required position and velocity. The efficiency of the proposed ANN-based controller has been estimated and verified in Simulink using real velocity data and the position of the injection moulding machine and pin valve motors

Performance Analysis of a Wearable Photovoltaic System

This paper discusses the results obtained during the practical characterization of the piezo electric properties of a commonly used carbon fibre. The aim of the investigation was to prepare the grounds for the feasibility of a low cost impact sensor that could be included in any carbon fibre structure (megalithic or thin structure) without interfering the integrity of the actual structure itself. The entire measurement loop as well as the techniques of connectivity of the fibres to the loop is described within. The piezo electric effects and all factors which affect the measurements are reflected in the analysis. The results obtained shown that in normal laboratory conditions the piezo-electric response of a T300 carbon fibre is consistent and directly proportional to the impact applied to the fibre

Conversion of Conventional Switching Mode Power Supply into a Photovoltaic Array Emulator

The paper discusses the development of a solar photovoltaic array emulator based on the conversion of a conventional switching mode power supply. The current-voltage characteristic of the power supply is adjusted according to the photovoltaic array model due to the injection of current into the junction of the feedback voltage divider circuit through an additional resistor. NI data acquisition device and Lab View software are used to build the emulator control system. The photovoltaic array model was implemented into the software algorithm as a look-up table to reduce the processing time and improve the system response. An “off-the-shelf” switching mode power supply having the flyback architecture and 230V ac input was selected for the practical experiment. The proposed approach to emulator development ensures rapid system prototyping at a low cost

Analysis of mechanical power flow in an electric drive operating under vibration conditions

This paper discusses the analysis of mechanical power flow in an electric motor drive operating under variation of conditions. The drive system vibration generates the oscillation in the supplied active power which can reduce performance of the system and increase the actual load on the shaft. It is shown that the vibration damper installation significantly decreases the oscillations in mechanical power flow on the motor shaft and improves characteristics of the system operation. The paper provide analysis of two models of the electric drive installed on the platform - the system which is quipped with vibration dampers and without

Scaling Analysis of Solving Algorithms for Canonical Problem of Dispatching in the Context of Dynamic Programming

The paper analyses computational model based on dynamic programming for platforms with multicore processors and heterogeneous architectures with FPGA. The models are applied for solving a canonical problem of dispatching where the computation time significantly depends on the problem scale factor. The parallel algorithms of NP-hard problem of dispatching are complicate and require intensive RAM data exchange. In order to reduce the computation time, it is suggested to use FPGA as a coprocessor providing massively parallel computation and increase the operational performance of the system in one order

Data Analysis of Random Blood Measurements for Abnormal Condition Detection

This paper discusses an approach of the abnormal condition detection of whole blood using piezo-synthetic effects in blood under dynamic external pressure. Three groups of samples having verified chemical and biological conditions were analysed to prove reliable detection: saline, whole blood and whole blood with colorectal cancer as an example of abnormal conditions. The procedure of a discrete differentiation process for obtained experimental data has been proposed as preliminary processing. Three information parameters have been selected to describe experimental data. Fischer F-statistics were used to determine the information content of the proposed information parameters. It has been proved that the proposed information parameters react on changing state of object under test and therefore can be effectively used for the abnormal condition detection

Synthesis of Serving Policies for Objects Flow in the System with Refillable Storage Component

This paper discusses the solution of the logistic problem occurred in a management system to supply fuel to inhabitants in the Arctic regions using bulk water transport delivery. The suggested mathematical model of a logistic scheme is designed in the form of uniprocessor system with refillable storage component providing a single stage service of deterministic objects flow. The task scheduling optimisation problem is formulated in the way where service policies are estimated by two independent minimised criteria. Proposed synthesis algorithm of Pareto-efficient service policies utilises a bicriterial approach of dynamic programming. The algorithm has been verified by the simulation example