Data Acquisition Control Research Articles

Design of a Laboratory Scale Solar Microgrid Cyber-Physical System for Education

Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind provide an effective solution for reducing dependency on conventional power generation and increasing the reliability and quality of power systems. Presented in this paper are design and implementation of a laboratory scale solar microgrid cyber-physical system (CPS) with wireless data monitoring as a teaching tool in the engineering technology curriculum. In the system, the solar panel, battery, charge controller, and loads form the physical layer, while the sensors, communication networks, supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA) and control systems form the cyber layer. The physical layer was seamlessly integrated with the cyber layer consisting of control and communication. The objective was to create a robust CPS platform and to use the system to promote interest in and knowledge of renewable energy among university students. Experimental results showed that the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) charge controller provided the loads with power from the solar panel and used additional power to charge the rechargeable battery. Through the system, students learned and mastered key concepts and knowledge of multi-disciplinary areas including data sampling and acquisition, analog to digital conversion, solar power, battery charging, control, embedded systems and software programing. It is a valuable teaching resource for students to study renewable energy in CPS.

Time dependent network resource optimization in cyber–physical systems using game theory

The social and economic stability of a country is dependent on critical infrastructures (CIs) whose services range from financial to healthcare and power to transportation and communications. Most of these CIs are cyber–physical systems (CPSs), which integrate the network’s computational and communication capabilities to facilitate the monitoring and controlling of physical processes. Such systems are vulnerable to damage due to natural disasters, physical incidents, or cyber-attacks impacting the CPS organizations managing complex industrial control systems and data acquisition systems. When these CPSs are exposed to systemic cyber risks and cascaded network failures, network administrators need to recover from the compromise under limited resources. This is formulated as an attacker-defender game model to emulate the decision-making process in choosing an appropriate attack/defence mechanism in response to cybersecurity incidents using game theory. To further improve the assumptions made in the pure game-theoretic model, we relax the constraints on the rationality of the players, monetary payoff, and completeness of information by incorporating learning in games using reinforcement learning technique and compute the expected payoff using linguistic fuzzy variables.

The Application of a Data Acquisition System and Airflow Control System in an Air Dehumidified Drying Machine

There are various possible drying methods used in seed drying. The tray dryer with an air dehumidifying system was used to produce various agricultural seeds. Seed drying by using an optimal air temperature requirement with low relative humidity can accelerate the drying process. To meet the specific drying requirement for agricultural products, air dehumidifying process, measurement data record, and airflow control were conducted in the drying machine. The objective of this research was to apply the data acquisition system and airflow control for seeds drying. The drying machine consisted of an air dehumidifying unit, data acquisition and airflow control unit, and a tray dryer unit. The air dehumidifying system was used to minimize the moisture in the drying air. The data acquisition system was used to monitor temperature and relative humidity distribution along with the drying machine. While the airflow control system was used to confirm that the requirement of air dehumidifying process was reached. A tray dryer used dehumidified air as the air input for the seed drying process. The drying machine was successfully reaching the optimal condition for drying with the temperature and relative humidity distribution were recorded. The optimal condition for the seed drying was reached by using this air dehumidified drying machine.

DEVELOPMENT OF A LOW-COST OPEN-SOURCE PLATFORM CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET FOR ACQUISITION OF ENVIRONMENTAL PARAMETERS AND SOIL MOISTURE

The development of the Internet and the technologies associated with it has allowed disseminating and cheapening of communication equipment, prototyping services, electronic sensors, and all types of devices. Agriculture has benefited from these technological advances to boost its productivity and profitability. This study presents the development of a data acquisition and device control platform to obtain, in real-time and remotely, information from the field for decision-making and process automation. All electronic components are low-cost and “open hardware”, and the software is “open-source”. The developed platform was validated during a development cycle of two lettuce varieties (Japanese and crisp), in which the soil water matric potential was monitored at two depths (10 and 25 cm), while solar irradiation, air temperature, and soil temperature were evaluated only to monitor the cycle. The platform automatically and satisfactorily controlled the applied irrigation depths using only the data of matric potential by activating a solenoid valve and made the information from the sensors available on the ThingSpeak Internet of Things (IoT) platform.

Quality-of-Service-Based Minimal Latency Routing for Wireless Networks

Minimized and nearly deterministic end-to-end latency facilitates real-time data acquisition and actuator control. In addition, defined latency is an integral part of quality-oriented service in order to get closer to the reliability of wired networks and at the same time takes advantage of wireless networking. This article introduces a QoS routing protocol capable of balancing power consumption between wireless sensor and actuator nodes while minimizing end-to-end latency. We introduce a time-division multiple access scheme in the routed wireless network to enable defined latency, and in addition, it improves the energy efficiency by avoiding collisions, which eliminates time and energy consuming retries. Our novel routing method allows latency and round-trip times to be calculated in advance. We implement a demonstrator and show experimental results of a wireless sensor network with our proposed routing scheme.

Non-destructive Measurement Methods of Sugarcane Canopy using Drone Technology

Destructive methods in the field of leaf area measurement are not effective for predicting plant growth. The development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and digital camera sensors makes it easier to obtain Small Format Aerial Photography (SFAP) data. Nondestructive sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) cutting using UAV technology is more effective than destructive methods. This study aims to determine the width of the tree canopy using Small-Format Aerial Photography Near-Infrared (NIR). The research stage includes a preliminary survey of sugarcane plantations and determination of Ground Control Point (GCP), data acquisition and SFAP using a modified Syma X8 Pro UAV drone and a Nikon Coolpix a 100 modified NIR camera, infrared aerial photo processing, measurement of cane area on sugarcane objects using Image Processing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The results of this research block sugarcane plantation SFAP in Balecatur Village, Sleman Regency, and a map of the area of sugarcane canopy in Balecatur Village, Sleman Regency. The cane canopy area of the study area is 29.3 m2.

A programmable logic controller based remote pipeline monitoring system

Pipelines are vital method for long distance transportation and they need to satisfy levels of safety, unwavering quality and efficiency. Large amount of natural resources is wasted due to leakages in pipelines. In recent years, this issue has gained a lot of consideration in research community due to associated economic losses and environmental hazards. The precise effort of this research is to design a novel leak detection system with improved sensitivity, reduce false alarm rate and higher leak localization accuracy. The proposed test bed is established by using specific purpose sensors, A programmable logic controller (PLC) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA). The well-known Volume Based Method (VBM) and Pressure Point Analysis (PPA)approach has been adapted to propose a Leak Detection System (LSD), with improved detection sensitivity and reliability. The algorithms are deployed in field on pipeline test bed and performance results are documented for different testing scenarios. Results show that the hybrid technique has leak detection sensitivity of 5 L/min in real time and ±8.5% leak localization accuracy.

WITHDRAWN: An improved two-way secure key supervision (tsks) scheme for secure scada

Abstract Supervisory Control Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are mainly designed for industrial purposes. Providing security to SCADA is a more challenging and demanding task in network security. Thus, this paper proposes a new scheme: Two-way Secure Key Supervision (TSKS) is proposed to provide high security to SCADA. For this purpose, the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is integrated with the Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET). Generally, the SCADA system used in Industrial Control Systems (ICS) is more prone to detect hostile users' attacks. Hence, it requires safety, product quality, real-time response, reliability and fault tolerance in emergencies. The SCADA targets secure power grid estimators used to travel power streams and locate defective centers. Here, the attack resistance of SCADA is increased with the help of TSKS mechanisms. In addition, the Lamport’s reverse hash chain algorithm is also used in this work to provide more privacy. The main advantage of this paper is that the proposed TSKS effectively increases the SCADA security and reduces external attacks' possibilities.

Multi-Channel Eddy Current Detector Based on Virtual Instrument Technology and Self-Balancing Technology

In order to reduce the complexity of software and hardware design in multi-channel eddy current testing, a multi-channel real-time eddy current testing system based on lock-in amplifier technology and self- balancing technology is designed. The system uses graphical programming language platform (LabVIEW), Myrio1900 data acquisition control card and lock-in amplifier as key components. The lock-in amplifier adopts the lock-in technology to detect the amplitude and phase of the weak eddy current signal. The Myrio1900 card outputs multiple analog switch control signals and collects the amplitude component of the weak eddy current signal. The LabVIEW platform uses self-balancing technology to eliminate the imbalance of the bridge itself. The detection system realizes the real-time and reliable display of the amplitude and XY components of the 6-channel eddy current signal. Experimental results show that the designed system has a detection width of 56.00 mm at one time, and can detect artificial grooves with a covering layer of 2.90 mm. The artificial grooves have a width of 1.00 mm, a depth of 1.00 mm and a length of 50.00 mm. The system design process described in the article can be used as a reference for equipment developers and can also be used for educational purposes.

Development and Application of Cutterhead Working Status Monitoring System for Shield TBM Tunnelling

During the shield TBM tunnelling, the working status of the cutterhead is difficult to be determined because the pressured chamber is located behind the cutterhead. In this paper, a cutterhead working status monitoring system for shield TBM tunnelling was developed to monitor the working status of the cutterhead in real time. The system consists of data acquisition subsystem, control and data transmission subsystem, as well as data processing and display subsystem. The cutter wear, cutter rotation speed and cutterhead temperature can be monitored and transmitted to the system software through the central port by cable and wireless. The system software can simultaneously display the TBM operating parameters and cutterhead working status parameters, predict the cutter life and present early warning of abnormal working status. The system has been successfully applied in a shield tunnelling project. Based on the analysis of the monitoring data, it was found that the normal cutter wear mainly depended on the rock abrasiveness and cutter rotation distance. The difference in cutter wear rate in the different ground was more than 3 times. The relative sliding between the cutter and the tunnel face was widespread. The sliding distance in low-abrasive formations exceeded 1/3 of the cutter track length. Under the normal tunneling conditions, the cutterhead temperature was lower than 50°. The successful application shows that this system can work stably in long term under harsh work environment and provide guidance for shield TBM tunnelling.

Design of time‐interleaved data acquisition system based on Network on Chip

AbstractIn order to solve the existing problems of time‐interleaved data acquisition system's poor scalability, limited acquisition channels, and complicated clock system based on System on Chip(SoC), this work presents a novel method of high‐speed data acquisition based on Network on Chip (NoC) communication architecture and time‐interleaved principle. Six analog‐to‐digital data acquisition resource nodes are hooked up to the NoC according to the unified features of NoC router interface. The data acquisition controller controls the time‐interleaved acquisition's timing sequences and realizes the remote transmission of data through two Gigabit Ethernet resource nodes. Adding timestamp to the collected data of each channel can recover the waveform signal accurately. The experiment results show that the combination of NoC communication architecture and time‐interleaved data acquisition has a certain innovative significance.

EASY: Educational Alibava System

EASY, a plug-and-play educational system, is portable, compact and a complete system for micro-strip sensor characterization. Ideal for making basic or complex experiments. It is based on the Classic Alibava System [1], largely used within the CERN community to test micro-strip detectors for particle experiments. The system can be configured to work with pulsed laser light or radioactive sources. The aim of this system is to illustrate students in the operation of a silicon strip detectors The components of the EASY systems are the Control Unit and the Sensor Unit. The Control Unit is the heart of the system communicating with the Sensor Unit and the Computer software. It contains the Data Acquisition Control and it is also in charge of processing of the sensor data and trigger inputs. In addition, it contains an adjustable Hight Voltage unit for micro-strip sensor bias, with voltage and current display and includes the laser source. The Control Unit communicates with computer software via USB. The Sensor Unit accommodate a p-on-n silicon micro-strip sensor segmented in 128 strips. EASY comes with an activity book where the students, through 10 exercises, are introduced in the main concepts and functionalities of micro-strip silicon detectors, used in the actual particle physic experiments. The book also provides a full description of the EASY device and the data Acquisition system.

System configuration of instrumented half-scaled armoured vehicle to enhance handling performance due to lateral firing impact

Yaw disturbance rejection control (YDRC) is developed to improve the handling performance of armoured vehicle due firing impact. Therefore, a complete system configuration of instrumented half-scaled armoured vehicle is required to interface the YDRC algorithm with integrated measurement and control (IMC) data acquisition system, inertial measurement unit (IMU) and rotary encoder sensors. By using this configuration, the impact of firing test has been evaluated at maximum firing angle of 90° and vehicle speed of 40 km/h. Based on the actual testing, the handling response of the armoured vehicle in terms of yaw rate and angle, lateral displacement and acceleration has been improved compare to passive armoured vehicle up to 45% of reduction.

System configuration of instrumented half-scaled armoured vehicle to enhance handling performance due to lateral firing impact

Yaw disturbance rejection control (YDRC) is developed to improve the handling performance of armoured vehicle due firing impact. Therefore, a complete system configuration of instrumented half-scaled armoured vehicle is required to interface the YDRC algorithm with integrated measurement and control (IMC) data acquisition system, inertial measurement unit (IMU) and rotary encoder sensors. By using this configuration, the impact of firing test has been evaluated at maximum firing angle of 90° and vehicle speed of 40 km/h. Based on the actual testing, the handling response of the armoured vehicle in terms of yaw rate and angle, lateral displacement and acceleration has been improved compare to passive armoured vehicle up to 45% of reduction.

Test Stand for Experimental Crash Tests at Low Speeds

The article presents a test stand with a control system and data acquisition for experimental crash tests at low speed. Crash tests are carried out at a low speed of the wheelchair and seat. Measurement and equipment allows to record and determine the displacements of individual parts of the body of the tested object. During the test, a constant speed of 20 km/h was kept. The paper presents test results of volunteers taking into account gender. The results of the conducted research showed that the trajectory of the head movement of female volunteers coincides with that of the male head. The result of these studies is an important argument for the construction of an anthropometric dummy intended for low speed crash tests, as the results can be averaged over the entire population without gender division.

Real time exploited BLDC motor drive BLDC motor drive in lab view virtual instrumentation environment

Abstract The brushless dc motor motors (BLDCMs) have an exceptional increasing demand in low powered electrical vehicle and commercial applications as their speed-torque performance, size and cost matters quite improvise than other motors. However the control of BLDCM motor is quiet complex and fitting of it into the application is very specific and challenging. The multi-motoring interface and control system and on-line turning are other challenges in the multi-motor drives as many control parameters are involved. In industrial applications, the demand of single-phase BLDCM multi-motoring real time control is expected technology in industry 4.0 based new era. The data acquisition card (DAQ), control and measurements are the ideal requirements of the real time multi-motor controls. The Lab View based centralized DAQ speed control is a possible solution for multi motor drive. With this interest, this paper deals about the real time single-phase BLDCM control by the use of Lab View DAQ NI USB 6008. In this paper the BLDCM control is created in the LABVIEW simulation with the option of varying the DC motor input voltage controlled by means of a virtual knob in lab view software. Output of DAQ has voltage varying reference which the voltage is giving the control reference voltage to the BLDCM to match the speed requirement. The current measurement of the proposed motor control has done with dedicated current shunt which accurate measures the current rating and given to DAQ. The different operating conditions of the motor performance is simulated in real time and verified with motor drive outputs. The proposed Lab VIEW based low power BLDCM control can be extended for multi-BLDCM drive system which offers the flexibility of integration of data acquisition.

Investigation of the Rotational Motion of the Fidget Spinner by Means of Technical Informatics

The boundaries between science, engineering and computer sciences seem to have been blurred in the 21st century. Microcontroller programming plays a role in informatics education, while modern physics teaching integrates the potential of computer simulations and computer-controlled measurement experiments. In order to demonstrate the latter, we present an experiment to precisely identify the dynamic causes of a kinematic phenomenon solved by means of technical computer science. To investigate the role of air resistance, we developed a vacuum chamber in which the signals of sensors were detected by the NI myDAQ multifunctional device and the popular Arduino UNO. A wide range of ways are presented to control data acquisition and numerical analysis of a quadrangle signal produced by a photogate, as well as graphical representation and evaluation of derived time-dependent signals. Controlling the two devices due to their characteristics and hosting of measured data by a computer require different programming techniques from the user (LabVIEW, C/C++). The results and methods of the study can be applied in physics and computer science education at a secondary school level.  

Integrated Framework for Development, Emulation, and Testing of High-Level Converter Control Functions for Distributed Generation Sources

With the increase in power installed from distributed generation sources (DGS), many problems have appeared following the utilisation of novel topologies and structures. Higher-level controllers for the safe operation of power grids with a high penetration of DGS must be developed. This task becomes difficult as the size and complexity of modern power systems have increased. The development and testing of these systems under strict human supervision controlling each step of the testing procedure is no longer viable. This paper presents a comprehensive integrated platform based on an HIL emulator for the development and testing of electric power systems rich in DGS. Essentially, DGS is considered a controllable black-box system. A detailed calculation of the power references for an arbitrary DGS is shown. The paper also describes the utilisation of enhanced Python scripting which was designed to load all network-related data, start the emulation, collect the data, and generate reports. Furthermore, fully developed controller built-in oscilloscope functionality is introduced. The incorporated oscilloscope facilitates non-intrusive DGS controller data acquisition and analysis, reducing the need for external measurements. The proposed framework was verified by a case study in which a grid topology consisting of 26 nodes was emulated on parallel CHIL infrastructure. Four active and twenty-two passive nodes were instantiated and their reaction to a distribution network grid faults was examined. DGS converter control was executed in external controllers outside of the dedicated HIL environment. All DGSs were governed by different control strategies, regarding maximisation of active/reactive power production, minimisation of the active/reactive power oscillations, adjustable positive/negative components ratio, or without any limitations under voltage disturbances. Real-time experiments confirmed the usefulness and flexibility of the proposed framework concept.

Main design characteristics of small scientific and applied-purpose spacecraft based on the Aist-2 unified platform

The description of the unified platform of small spacecraft AIST-2 is presented. The platform is intended to accommodate various types of science equipment, Earth remote sensing equipment and onboard support systems. The description of the unified platform design, main onboard systems, ground control facilities, data acquisition and processing is given. The results of design studies, construction and operation of small spacecraft built on the basis of the AIST-2 unified platform are presented. The design, onboard composition, technical characteristics and results of operation of the first small spacecraft in the line – AIST-2D which it was launched on April 28, 2016 in the scope of the first launch campaign from the Vostochny Cosmodrome by the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle with the Volga ascent unit are described in detail. The results of design studies on the development of advanced small spacecraft based on the AIST-2 platform capable of functioning as part of the space monitoring system are described. Key words: small spacecraft, unified platform, design configuration, remote sensing of the Earth, stereoscopic image equipment, electro-rocket propulsion system.

Computer aided testing of materials through interfacing device

Abstract The computer aided material testing is playing an essential role in manufacturing industries to enhance the quality of the products. In recent years, the conventional machines are converted in to computer based control. The present paper was discussed about the material testing equipments have been updated with data acquisition and computer control system. The sensors and actuators were interfaced with computer control system. It was used to test the advanced material with high accuracy. The experimental purpose, aluminium and steel were used as testing materials. Tensile test and impact test were conducted. The experimental results were compared with or without interface system. The improved results were also discussed with pareto chart.