Remote Automation Research Articles

Optimizing Winter Air Quality in Pig-Fattening Houses: A Plasma Deodorization Approach.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of two circulation modes of a plasma deodorization unit on the air environment of pig-fattening houses in winter. Two pig-fattening houses were selected, one of which was installed with a plasma deodorizing device with two modes of operation, alternating internal and external circulation on a day-by-day basis. The other house did not have any form of treatment and was used as the control house. Upon installing the system, this study revealed that in the internal circulation mode, indoor temperature and humidity were sustained at elevated levels, with the NH3 and H2S concentrations decreasing by 63.87% and 100%, respectively, in comparison to the control house. Conversely, in the external circulation mode, the indoor temperature and humidity remained subdued, accompanied by a 16.43% reduction in CO2 concentration. The adept interchange between these two operational modes facilitates the regulation of indoor air quality within a secure environment. This not only effectively diminishes deleterious gases in the pig-fattening house but also achieves the remote automation of environmental monitoring and hazardous gas management; thereby, it mitigates the likelihood of diseases and minimizes breeding risks.

Certificate-less authenticated key agreement scheme with anonymity for smart grid communications

The modern grid has various functionalities by using remote sensor automation in power management, monitoring and controlling the system. Thus, it is imperative to ensure secure communications for various agents in smart grid, since the system is information communication based. Being information based the smart grid encounters security and privacy challenges impeding its adoption. One way of dealing with these cyber concerns is in devising robust cryptosystem for data encryption and authenticated key agreement in the communications of these remotely controlled smart devices. However, many proposed solutions are provided at the expense of computations cost. Thus, this paper designs a novel authenticated key agreement scheme with anonymity based on widely acceptable elliptic curve cryptography with efficiency. The scheme ensures optimal computation and communication overload whilst achieving mutual authentication and anonymity in the key agreement process. The scheme is proven in both formal and informal security analysis in portraying its satisfaction of the standard and extended Canetti–Krawczyk (eCK) security requirements. A comparative analysis with related schemes indicates that the proposed scheme have merits over others.

ESG Poster ESG11: Lighting the way

Poster ESG11 Historically, Chevron Australia Pty Ltd have utilised Mobile Diesel Lighting Towers (MDLTs), with ‘turtle friendly’ luminaires at the Gorgon natural gas project (located on Barrow Island, Western Australia), operated by Chevron Australia on behalf of a joint venture of the Australian subsidiaries of Chevron (47.3%), ExxonMobil (25%), Shell (25%), Osaka Gas (1.25%), Tokyo Gas (1%) and JERA (0.417%). MDLTs are a known, relatively safe and reliable light source that can be utilised in most locations, though they emit noise, odour, vibrations, waste hydrocarbons and CO2 as well as requiring regular refuelling and general engine maintenance. With recent and significant improvements in solar energy harvest, and battery storage efficiencies, Mobile Solar Lighting Towers (MSLTs) have technical and performance characteristics that are comparable, and in many instances superior, to MDLTs. In addition to these characteristics, Chevron Australia has successfully worked with its Australian supplier, conducting trials on site to introduce a range of additional design and performance improvements. These improvements include simple Human–Machine Interface (HMI) touch screen interface allowing remote automation through WiFi or 4G, real-time battery and performance monitoring, CCTV, geofencing and GPS tracking. The benefits of replacing just 25 owned MDLTs with solar includes the abatement of over 600 tonnes of CO2 and direct operational cost savings of almost A$50 000 per year (not including indirect cost savings or avoided carbon emissions costs). Further, net present value calculations demonstrate a financial benefit exceeding A$1 000 000 over 5 years when the solar towers are leased compared with maintaining existing or purchasing new diesel units. These MSLT units are delivering environmental benefits, direct and indirect financial savings, and reduced health, safety and environment risk, which have been welcomed by the on-site workforce. To access the poster click the link on the right. To read the full paper click here

Lighting the way

Historically, Chevron Australia Pty Ltd have utilised Mobile Diesel Lighting Towers (MDLTs), with ‘turtle friendly’ luminaires at the Gorgon natural gas project (located on Barrow Island, Western Australia), operated by Chevron Australia on behalf of a joint venture of the Australian subsidiaries of Chevron (47.3%), ExxonMobil (25%), Shell (25%), Osaka Gas (1.25%), Tokyo Gas (1%) and JERA (0.417%). MDLTs are a known, relatively safe and reliable light source that can be utilised in most locations, though they emit noise, odour, vibrations, waste hydrocarbons and CO2 as well as requiring regular refuelling and general engine maintenance. With recent and significant improvements in solar energy harvest, and battery storage efficiencies, Mobile Solar Lighting Towers (MSLTs) have technical and performance characteristics that are comparable, and in many instances superior, to MDLTs. In addition to these characteristics, Chevron Australia has successfully worked with its Australian supplier, conducting trials on site to introduce a range of additional design and performance improvements. These improvements include simple Human–Machine Interface (HMI) touch screen interface allowing remote automation through WiFi or 4G, real-time battery and performance monitoring, CCTV, geofencing and GPS tracking. The benefits of replacing just 25 owned MDLTs with solar includes the abatement of over 600 tonnes of CO2 and direct operational cost savings of almost A$50 000 per year (not including indirect cost savings or avoided carbon emissions costs). Further, net present value calculations demonstrate a financial benefit exceeding A$1 000 000 over 5 years when the solar towers are leased compared with maintaining existing or purchasing new diesel units. These MSLT units are delivering environmental benefits, direct and indirect financial savings, and reduced health, safety and environment risk, which have been welcomed by the on-site workforce.

VISUAL ACUITY CHECK

Visual Acuity check is the test initiated to examine patients' potential eyesight problems. After detection, it is then rectified under the guidance of a professional (ophthalmologist) with appropriate solutions. This test usually includes expensive instruments which make the setup bulky and immobile. Due to the limited resources and high cost, people residing in remote areas do not prefer to undergo this test which makes them ignorant concerning their visual health. So, to turn their attention towards visual health and help them avail this test, we are trying to propose a set-up namely Visual Acuity Check with minimum instruments. The key components of this setup are a standard Snellen Chart, a system that uses a Speech-to-text converter, and a node MCU for remote automation. This system includes pre-defined standard formulae and conversions for diopter calculations. This test does not necessarily require any professional handling. Thus, this movable setup will offer high efficiency at a very low cost. Key Words: Snellen chart, Node MCU Module, speech to text converter system.

Vacuum control system for the Space Plasma Environment Research Facility

The Space Plasma Environment Research Facility (SPERF) is a ground simulation user facility for studying the space plasma physical processes. This study presents the design and construction of a vacuum control system for the SPERF to set up an appropriate vacuum environment for plasma experiments, including the terrestrial space and near space vacuum control systems. Based on the requirements of remote automation, distributed control, centralized management, high reliability, expansibility, and safety, the architecture of the vacuum control system has been divided into three levels. Among these, the local level is the most essential part of the control system, which adopts the programmable logical controller (PLC) with Siemens S7-1500 CPU as the core. The PLC supports multiple communication protocols and can accurately control and monitor the actuators in the process of establishing a vacuum environment. Furthermore, it has the ability to communicate and interact with remote upper computers and the central control system through the supervisory control and data acquisition (scada) software developed based on iFix. Based on the architecture of the vacuum control system, the control process for establishing the vacuum environment, including the ultimate vacuum and experimental vacuum, was designed. It is noteworthy that in experimental vacuum acquisition, the injection of working fluid gas is controlled directly by the central control system, considering the different requirements of the terrestrial space and near space systems for the experimental working pressure and flexibility of the experimental vacuum control. The vacuum control system designed in this study provides technical support for the SPERF to perform the plasma experiments successfully. In addition, it offers reference and insights for the design of vacuum control systems in similar large-scale plasma simulation facilities.

PROSIM in the Cloud: Remote Automation Training Platform with Virtualized Infrastructure

The need for high-availability, efficient, training solutions for industrial automation technology is driving the adoption of new tools, software and services supporting the Industry 4.0 paradigm. Specific requirements include vendor agnostic and standards-based programming languages and availability of both physical input–output and industrial communication, while providing a rich and immersive experience through suitable human–machine interface components. The PROSIM platform represents an integrated embedded hardware-software system for programmable logic controller automation training which provides examples in increasing order of complexity, ranging from basic digital logic up to complex manufacturing simulations and process control. A fully software-based solution has been developed in order to complement the laboratory-based system as a training digital twin. We describe the design, implementation and evaluation of the platform as ported onto the HUBCAP collaborative sandboxing environment for virtualized operation. Integration of dedicated communication libraries for Open Platform Communications, Unified Architecture, with simulated programmable logic controllers such as PLCSIM and ARSim is also discussed for fully leveraging new features emerging from increased information and operational technology convergence witnessed in realistic, plant-level, environments. Qualitative and quantitative evaluation in comparison to the physical system while leveraging the resources provided by the cloud environment is carried out.

Hazard Analysis of Action Loops for Automated Vehicle Remote Operation

One way to compensate for the limitations of automated vehicles is to use a remote operator as a fallback controller. Indeed, this has been proposed for fleet management and intermittent vehicle control. However, existing remote operation applications have demonstrated control challenges, such as latency and bandwidth, that inhibit the effectiveness of human operators. Additionally, human factors challenges arising due to the roles of multiple remote operators managing multiple vehicles further complicates these interventions. This paper uses the Systems Theoretic Process Analysis hazard analysis technique to identify system-level issues related to the remote operation of automated vehicles. Human factors challenges are identified through the lens of two control loops that link remote drivers, dispatchers, and vehicle automation. These control loops reveal familiar challenges, such as situation awareness and mental model mismatches, as well as novel challenges, such as poorly synchronized and misaligned control.

SISTEM MONITORING SUHU DAN KELEMBABAN BERBASIS IoT PADA PROSES PEMBUATAN PUPUK ORGANIK PADAT

The Process Of Making Organic Fertilizer requires a certain temperature and humidity to keep the microorganisms used to be able to stay alive and can decompose perfectly, for that it is necessary to monitor temperature and humidity. Along with the development of this technology, it can be done by remote automation using a microcontroller on the ESP8266 nodemcu based on IoT (Internet Of Things), which is combined with the DS18B20 sensor for temperature measurement and soil moisture sensor, as a humidity meter with a temperature unit of °C. The humidity meter is an analog signal, the larger the value, the more humid of organic fertilizer. Acquired measurement data is sent to the Smartphone using an internet-connected ESP8266 monitoring temperature and humidity, which can be viewed via the Blynk App.

Under water motion tracking and monitoring using wireless sensor network and Machine learning

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) plays an indispensable role in different application and development in new generation technology. In 5G technology, one of the essential features is the connectivity with registered and unregistered networks to promote remote automation. By which the technology can be harnessed at its best and scaled in multi-dimensional applications. These applications are also enabled for diverse motion detection and object tracking applications. In this presented work, an underwater object tracking technique has been proposed, which enable the prediction of the mobile sensor node. The method involves a simulation which demonstrates a 2D-UASN architecture of underwater scenario and in this network using a different number of nodes using random positioning static sensor nodes are deployed. Finally, a mobile sensor node with random mobility is introduced into the network. The approach follows statistical analysis to compute the next possible position of the node. Based on experiments, the accuracy of the predictive methodology is measured in two different scenarios. In the first scenario, the number of nodes is variable, and the simulation area kept fixed size, i.e., 1000X1000. Additionally, in the second scenario, the number of nodes remains fixed, and the simulation area is variable. The results demonstrate that when we deploy sensor nodes randomly in a large area and network node density is less, the detection accuracy significantly affects and demonstrates low accuracy compared to dense area networks. Secondly, the prediction trend from dense to less dense area demonstrates the reducing accuracy.

Digital Predistortion in High Throughput Satellites: Architectures and Performance

The future of satellites lies in the deployment of high throughput satellites (HTS). Moreover, HTS will also play an important role in the up coming 5G mobile networks where HTS will provide services like disaster relief, remote automation, maritime services etc. However, the distortions caused by the on-board transponder filters and high power amplifiers (HPAs) reduce the overall performance of HTS. To increase the power and bandwidth efficiency, the transponder HPAs are often operated close to saturation and in multicarrier mode. In addition, the transponder filters are built with tighter guard bands to minimize the out-of-band (OOB) radiations. Such operation conditions introduce severe linear and non-linear distortions in the transponder's output in terms of inter-modulation (IMD) noise, spectral regrowth, and memory effects. Digital predistortion (DPD) can effectively mitigate these distortions. This article proposes an on-board implementation of a ground-based state-of-the-art bandlimited memory polynomial (MP) DPD method to mitigate the aforementioned distortions. The authors stress on the fact that the on-board application of the proposed ground-based DPD makes it the most suitable DPD method for HTS. However, the focus of this article lies in the identification of the system parameters which effect the predistortion performance. To this end, the performance of the considered state-of-the-art DPD is thoroughly analyzed for varying uplink-signal, transponder and DPD specific parameters.

Container Terminal Handling Simulation Model Utilizing Daily Work Report

Container terminals are important to support economic activities. In Japan, it is growing fast the trend to adopt a remote automated guide system in the storage yard area. When introducing a remote automation container terminal, it is effective to validate the layout plan and control system through a container handling simulation model. Previous studies have shown that the key performance indicators of container handling operations have been calculated only using the equipment catalog specifications. However, the spreader of the Rubber Tired Gantry Crane (RTG) may take shortcuts according to the shape of the container bay, which might be a problem when developing a container handling model. In this paper, a container handling simulation model was built utilizing the daily report operation parameters instead of only the equipment cataloc specifications. As a result, it is shown that the simulation model is effective to reproduce improvements in the operation of RTG systems.

ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕ МЕТОДИКИ СОПРЯЖЕННОЙ ИДЕОМОТОРИКИ ДЛЯ ПСИХОФИЗИОЛОГИЧЕСКОЙ ДИАГНОСТИКИ И КОРРЕКЦИИ С ПОМОЩЬЮ СМАРТФОНА

The paper introduces the principles of an adjoint ideomotion method (AIM) for psychophysiological diagnostics based on a client – server distributed system within which information is communicated and measurement data filed with the help of commonly used smartphones. The authors discuss the issues of remote diagnostics automation and unification, application areas, and practical uses. Comparison of the results of questioning and AIM evidenced for advantages of the latter in respect to small populations and revealing symptoms undetectable by standard questionnaires.

XeUS: A second-generation automated open-source batch-mode clinical-scale hyperpolarizer

We present a second-generation open-source automated batch-mode 129Xe hyperpolarizer (XeUS GEN-2), designed for clinical-scale hyperpolarized (HP) 129Xe production via spin-exchange optical pumping (SEOP) in the regimes of high Xe density (0.66–2.5 atm partial pressure) and resonant photon flux (~170 W, Δλ = 0.154 nm FWHM), without the need for cryo-collection typically employed by continuous-flow hyperpolarizers. An Arduino micro-controller was used for hyperpolarizer operation. Processing open-source software was employed to program a custom graphical user interface (GUI), capable of remote automation. The Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE) was used to design a variety of customized automation sequences such as temperature ramping, NMR signal acquisition, and SEOP cell refilling for increased reliability. A polycarbonate 3D-printed oven equipped with a thermo-electric cooler/heater provides thermal stability for SEOP for both binary (Xe/N2) and ternary (4He-containing) SEOP cell gas mixtures. Quantitative studies of the 129Xe hyperpolarization process demonstrate that near-unity polarization can be achieved in a 0.5 L SEOP cell. For example, %PXe of 93.2 ± 2.9% is achieved at 0.66 atm Xe pressure with polarization build-up rate constant γSEOP = 0.040 ± 0.005 min−1, giving a max dose equivalent ≈ 0.11 L/h 100% hyperpolarized, 100% enriched 129Xe; %PXe of 72.6 ± 1.4% is achieved at 1.75 atm Xe pressure with γSEOP of 0.041 ± 0.001 min−1, yielding a corresponding max dose equivalent of 0.27 L/h. Quality assurance studies on this device have demonstrated the potential to refill SEOP cells hundreds of times without significant losses in performance, with average %PXe = 71.7%, (standard deviation σP = 1.52%) and mean polarization lifetime T1 = 90.5 min, (standard deviation σT = 10.3 min) over the first ~200 gas mixture refills, with sufficient performance maintained across a further ~700 refills. These findings highlight numerous technological developments and have significant translational relevance for efficient production of gaseous HP 129Xe contrast agents for use in clinical imaging and bio-sensing techniques.

Research on Precision Planting Management System Based on Agricultural Big Data

Through the use of agricultural intelligent sensing equipment and intelligent control equipment, the precision planting management system builds the Internet of Things monitoring network in the agricultural production site to realize real-time data collection, monitoring of the climate environment, soil conditions, crop growth, pests and diseases, and remote automation control of various agricultural facilities and equipment on the site. The collected agricultural big data is uploaded to the planting management cloud platform in real time, and statistical analysis is performed instantly, which addresses the staff’s demand for data collection and analysis. Through data mining and analysis, the rules and expertise of high-quality and high-yield crops are obtained, which further guides the regulation of agricultural varieties and production environment, so as to achieve intelligent planting.

LoBEMS—IoT for Building and Energy Management Systems

This work presents the efforts on optimizing energy consumption by deploying an energy management system using the current IoT component/system/platform integration trends through a layered architecture. LoBEMS (LoRa Building and Energy Management System), the proposed platform, was built with the mindset of proving a common platform that would integrate multiple vendor locked-in systems together with custom sensor devices, providing critical data in order to improve overall building efficiency. The actions that led to the energy savings were implemented with a ruleset that would control the already installed air conditioning and lighting control systems. This approach was validated in a kindergarten school during a three-year period, resulting in a publicly available dataset that is useful for future and related research. The sensors that feed environmental data to the custom energy management system are composed by a set of battery operated sensors tied to a System on Chip with a LoRa communication interface. These sensors acquire environmental data such as temperature, humidity, luminosity, air quality but also motion. An already existing energy monitoring solution was also integrated. This flexible approach can easily be deployed to any building facility, including buildings with existing solutions, without requiring any remote automation facilities. The platform includes data visualization templates that create an overall dashboard, allowing management to identify actions that lead to savings using a set of pre-defined actions or even a manual mode if desired. The integration of the multiple systems (air-conditioning, lighting and energy monitoring) is a key differentiator of the proposed solution, especially when the top energy consumers for modern buildings are cooling and heating systems. As an outcome, the evaluation of the proposed platform resulted in a 20% energy saving based on these combined energy saving actions.

Automatically Monitoring, Controlling, and Reporting Status/Data for Multiple Product Life Test Stands

This paper describes an industry laboratory implementation of local and remote automation monitoring and control of several product testing stands for status, safety, and an efficient use of resources, as well as the purpose and inter-relationship between the tests, product reliability estimations, customer applications, and possible solutions to test specification issues. Like an airport departure/arrival board, the summary statuses of several life stands are reported on a monitor using a mobile application interface. Detailed data analysis reports and emergency shutdown statuses are emailed to authorized-interested parties. The life stands include submersion tanks and flow rigs at different fluid temperatures (steady-state, slow cycling, thermal shock). To reduce equipment costs and lab space requirements, some life test stands are combined to share heating/cooling transfer fluids and pumping resources that are automatically controlled to direct different fluid temperature ranges through different flow paths. A heater/chilling system cycles between −80 °C and +140 °C with automated diverter valves to route −80 °C to +85 °C fluid through a set of products; when the fluid temperature is increased to > +85 °C, diverter valves route the > +85 °C fluid through a different set of products that are tested only between fluid temperatures of +85 °C to +140 °C.

Condition Monitoring of a Campus Microgrid Elements using Smart Sensors

A Microgrid (MG) is an independent grid with both load and its own generation that has the option to be connected to the grid or can be islanded. Intelligent monitoring and control of MG make it as a building block for smart grid technology. With automation and distributed control, load and generation management can be done remotely. We are currently running a campus MG with high efficiency combined heat and power (CHP) generation and renewable energy sources. The space heating is achieved by the recaptured unused heat from CHP generators. The rotatory loads connected to the MG is monitored by the smart wireless enabled sensors that can be accessed by using the internet. A distributed control system (DCS) from our industry partner ABB Inc. (800- XA system) is providing remote control and protection of MGs critical components using multiple industry standard communication protocol (Modbus, Profibus etc.). The study shows that the controlling of water flow to the CHP generator by using remote automation technology provide higher thermal recovery for space heating. Also the smart monitoring and distributed control provide energy savings and warning for preventive maintenance

Analysis and assessment of smart grid: a review

Smart grid mainly based on different class of technology such as computer-based remote control and automation of power or energy grid and in another way, it would be a path in which transmission and distribution are controlled by computer and information technology-based system. Smart grid is a recognised perception being rapidly introduced in the power industry and it plays a key role in the development of the worldwide power sector. This paper presents a review of analysis and assessment of the smart grid on the basis of architectural design, communication, measurement technology, assessment of smart grid by optimisation technique, reliability, economic assessment, asset management, cyber physical security, game theoretic assessment of smart grid, sustainable energy option and control system of smart grid.

An open source tool for reliability evaluation of distribution systems with renewable generators

Future smart electrical distribution systems could adopt switch remote control and advanced automation systems to operate in autonomous mode (islanding) some portions of the network in order to improve system reliability. In this perspective, a free code able to assess distribution reliability by using analytical or Monte Carlo simulation methods accounting for intentional islanding operation is presented. An effective network representation and data structure, which have led up to the implementation of two automatic and general procedures, are proposed. The procedures share common underlying information in order to speed up calculation. A further merit of the tool is that it enables the user to quickly and simply create the input files. The reliability indices of three distribution networks have been computed by means of the developed software for different scenarios, that is when island mode of operation is not permitted by regulation, and when island mode is permitted (intentional islanding) with the local load either partially or totally supplied by renewable distributed generators. The free code, the input files and the results related to the considered networks are available online at: http://www.dieei.unict.it/users/sconti/psrs.htm.