Anledningarna till att använda sig av en trådlös signalöverföring i en industri kan vara många, oftast handlar det om ställen där det är svårt eller omöjligt att ha en trådad förbindelse. I det här fallet är det en sedimenteringsbassäng där man tar hand om processvatten från industrin. Bassängen är utformad som en cylinder där vattnet rinner genom olika avdelningar för att minska innehållet av sediment. I bassängen cirkulerar en plattform med diverse omrörare och skrapor på. Eftersom denna del går runt hela tiden är det svårt att ha en fast förbindelse till de drifter som finns. Om man ska använda sig av en fast förbindelse måste kopplingen ske med släpringar, och denna typ av koppling kan bidra till en del problem vid signalöverföring i form av avbrott och störningar. Nu vill man prova alternativet att överföra alla styr och mätsignaler trådlöst. Trådlös signalöverföring är inget ovanligt, men det som är speciellt i det här fallet är att alla signaler ska gå trådlöst, även de som styr motordrifter. / There can be several reasons to use wireless signal transmission in a industry. Its often used in places where there is very hard ore impossible to use a cable. In this case it’s a basin that’s used for water cleaning that should be controlled wireless. The basin has a cylinder form and all the units that shouldbe controlled rotates in the basin. This makes it hard to use a cable. If a cable should be used the transmission between the rotating units and the control system needs to be connected with a drag contact that can lead to problems in the signal transfer. Now they want to try out the technology fore wireless transmission of the control signals. Today the basin is controlled by old electromechanically equipment that is mounted on the basin, but for better control and supervision of the basin its going to be controlled from a modern control system.

People with severe motor-impairments due to Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) or Spinal Cord Dysfunction (SCD), often experience difficulty with accurate and efficient control of pointing devices (Keates et al., 02). Usually this leads to their limited integration to society as well as limited unassisted control over the environment. The questions “How can someone with severe motor-impairments perform mouse pointer control as accurately and efficiently as an able-bodied person?” and “How can these interactions be advanced through use of Computational Intelligence (CI)?” are the driving forces behind the research described in this paper. Through this research, a novel fuzzy mouse cursor control system (FMCCS) is developed. The goal of this system is to simplify and improve efficiency of cursor control and its interactions on the computer screen by applying fuzzy logic in its decision-making to make disabled Internet users use the networked computer conveniently and easily. The FMCCS core consists of several fuzzy control functions, which define different user interactions with the system. The development of novel cursor control system is based on utilization of motor functions that are still available to most complete paraplegics, having capability of limited vision and breathing control. One of the biggest obstacles of developing human computer interfaces for disabled people focusing primarily on eyesight and breath control is user’s limited strength, stamina, and reaction time. Within the FMCCS developed in this research, these limitations are minimized through the use of a novel pneumatic input device and intelligent control algorithms for soft data analysis, fuzzy logic and user feedback assistance during operation. The new system is developed using a reliable and cheap sensory system and available computing techniques. Initial experiments with healthy and SCI subjects have clearly demonstrated benefits and promising performance of the new system: the FMCCS is accessible for people with severe SCI; it is adaptable to user specific capabilities and wishes; it is easy to learn and operate; point-to-point movement is responsive, precise and fast. The integrated sophisticated interaction features, good movement control without strain and clinical risks, as well the fact that quadriplegics, whose breathing is assisted by a respirator machine, still possess enough control to use the new system with ease, provide a promising framework for future FMCCS applications. The most motivating leverage for further FMCCS development is however, the positive feedback from persons who tested the first system prototype.

Networked control systems (NCSs) are a kind of distributed control systems in which the data between control components are exchanged via communication networks. Because of the attractive advantages of NCSs such as reduced system wiring, low weight, and ease of system diagnosis and maintenance, the research on NCSs has received much attention in recent years. The first part (Chapter 2 - Chapter 4) of the thesis is devoted to designing new controllers for NCSs by incorporating the network-induced delays. The thesis also conducts research on filtering of multirate systems and identification of Hammerstein systems in the second part (Chapter 5 - Chapter 6).<br /><br /> Network-induced delays exist in both sensor-to-controller (S-C) and controller-to-actuator (C-A) links. A novel two-mode-dependent control scheme is proposed, in which the to-be-designed controller depends on both S-C and C-A delays. The resulting closed-loop system is a special jump linear system. Then, the conditions for stochastic stability are obtained in terms of a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) with nonconvex constraints, which can be efficiently solved by a sequential LMI optimization algorithm. Further, the control synthesis problem for the NCSs is considered. The definitions of <em>H₂</em> and <em>H_∞</em> norms for the special system are first proposed. Also, the plant uncertainties are considered in the design. Finally, the robust mixed <em>H₂/H_&infin;</em> control problem is solved under the framework of LMIs. <br /><br /> To compensate for both S-C and C-A delays modeled by Markov chains, the generalized predictive control method is modified to choose certain predicted future control signal as the current control effort on the actuator node, whenever the control signal is delayed. Further, stability criteria in terms of LMIs are provided to check the system stability. The proposed method is also tested on an experimental hydraulic position control system. <br /><br /> Multirate systems exist in many practical applications where different sampling rates co-exist in the same system. The <em>l₂-l_&infin;</em> filtering problem for multirate systems is considered in the thesis. By using the lifting technique, the system is first transformed to a linear time-invariant one, and then the filter design is formulated as an optimization problem which can be solved by using LMI techniques. <br /><br /> Hammerstein model consists of a static nonlinear block followed in series by a linear dynamic system, which can find many applications in different areas. New switching sequences to handle the two-segment nonlinearities are proposed in this thesis. This leads to less parameters to be estimated and thus reduces the computational cost. Further, a stochastic gradient algorithm based on the idea of replacing the unmeasurable terms with their estimates is developed to identify the Hammerstein model with two-segment nonlinearities. <br /><br /> Finally, several open problems are listed as the future research directions.

The cabin environment of a commercial aircraft, including cabin layout and the quality of air supply, is crucial to the airline operators. These aspects directly affect the passengers’ experience and willing to travel. This aim of this thesis is to design the cabin layout for flying wing aircraft as part of cabin environment work, followed by the air quality work, which is to understand what effect the ECS can have in terms of cabin air contamination. The project, initially, focuses on the cabin layout, including passenger cabin configuration, seat arrangement and its own size due to the top requirements, of a conventional aircraft and further into that of a flying wing aircraft. The cabin work in respect of aircraft conceptual design is discussed and conducted by comparing different design approaches. Before the evaluation of cabin air quality, an overall examination of the main ECS components involved in the contaminants access will be carried on and, therefore, attempt to discover how these components influence the property of the concerned contaminants. By case study in the B767 ECS, there are some comments and discussions regarding the relationship between the cabin air contaminations and the passing by ambient environment. The thesis ends up with a conclusion explaining whether or not the contaminated air enters the occupants’ compartments on aircraft and proposing some approaches and engineering solutions to the continue research.

Nowadays the aviation industry is playing an important role in our daily life, since is the main medium that satisfies the present human needs to reach long distances in the fastest way. But such benefit doesn’t come free of collateral consequences. It is estimated that each year, only the air transport industry produces 628 mega tonnes of CO2. Therefore, urgently actions need to be implemented considering that the current commercial fleet will be doubled by 2050. The research field for more efficient aircraft systems is a very constructive field; where novel ideas can be exploited towards the mitigation of the coming air transport development. In this research the configuration of the Environmental Control System (ECS) has been analysed aiming to reduce its energy consumption for both, fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. This goal is expected to be achieved mainly through the replacement of the main source of power that supplies the ECS, from pneumatic to electric. Differently from the conventional ECS, a new electric-source technology is integrated in the system configuration to compare its effects on the energy consumption. This new technology doesn’t bleed air directly from the engines; instead of that, it takes the air directly from the atmosphere through the implementation of an electric compressor. This new technology has been implemented by Boeing in one of its most recent airplanes, the B787. Towards achieving the main goal, a framework integrated with five steps has been designed. An algorithmic analysis is integrated on the framework. The first step meets the required aircraft characteristics for the analysis. The second step is in charge of meeting the mission profile characteristics where the overall analysis will be carried out. The third step assesses the conventional ECS penalties. The fourth step carries out a complex analysis for the proposed electric ECS model, from its design up to its penalties assessment. The fifth step compares the analysis results for both, the conventional and the electric models. The fourth step of the framework, which analyses the electric ECS, is considered the most critic one; therefore is divided in three main tasks. Firstly, a small parametric study is done to select an optimum configuration. This task is carried out towards meeting the ECS air conditioning requirements of a selected aircraft. Secondly, the cabin temperature and pressurization are simulated to analyse the response of the configured electric ECS for a mission profile. And finally, the fuel penalties are assessed in terms of system weight, drag and fuel due power-off take. To achieve the framework results, a model which receives the name ELENA has been created using the tool Simulink®. This model contains 5 interconnected modules; each one reads a series of inputs to perform calculations and exchange information with other modules.

This thesis presents a novel design paradigm of mobile robots: the Hybrid Mobile Robot system. It consists of a combination of parallel and serially connected links resulting in a hybrid mechanism that includes a mobile robot platform for locomotion and a manipulator arm for manipulation, both interchangeable functionally. All state-of-the-art mobile robots have a separate manipulator arm module attached on top of the mobile platform. The platform provides mobility and the arm provides manipulation. Unlike them, the new design has the ability to interchangeably provide locomotion and manipulation capability, both simultaneously. This was accomplished by integrating the locomotion platform and the manipulator arm as one entity rather than two separate and attached modules. The manipulator arm can be used as part of the locomotion platform and vice versa. This paradigm significantly enhances functionality. The new mechanical design was analyzed with a virtual prototype that was developed with MSC Adams Software. Simulations were used to study the robot’s enhanced mobility through animations of challenging tasks. Moreover, the simulations were used to select nominal robot parameters that would maximize the arm’s payload capacity, and provide for locomotion over unstructured terrains and obstacles, such as stairs, ditches and ramps. The hybrid mobile robot also includes a new control architecture based on embedded on-board wireless communication network between the robot’s links and modules such as the actuators and sensors. This results in a modular control architecture since no cable connections are used between the actuators and sensors in each of the robot links. This approach increases the functionality of the mobile robot also by providing continuous rotation of each link constituting the robot. The hybrid mobile robot’s novel locomotion and manipulation capabilities were successfully experimented using a complete physical prototype. The experiments provided test results that support the hypothesis on the qualitative and quantitative performance of the mobile robot in terms of its superior mobility, manipulation, dexterity, and ability to perform very challenging tasks. The robot was tested on an obstacle course consisting of various test rigs including man–made and natural obstructions that represent the natural environments the robot is expected to operate on.

This thesis aims to develop a control system for measuring electromagnetic compability (EMC). This has meant that a controller designed around an ATmega8 microcontroller has been manufactured and programmed. It has also meant the development of a comprehensive control software in the program MATLAB. The control system has been tested with satisfactory results and can now, monitor and control measurements of the EMC-type. / Detta examensarbete syftar till att utveckla ett styrsystem för mätning av elektromagnetisk kompabilitet (EMC). Detta har inneburit att ett styrkort uppbyggt kring en ATmega8 mikrokontroller har tillverkats och programmerats. Det har även inneburet utveckling av en övergripande kontrollmjukvara i programmet MATLAB. Styrsystemet har testats med tillfredsställande resultat och kan nu, övervaka och kontrollera mätningar av EMC-typ.

Detta examensarbete har ägt rum vid Produktionsverkstad 1 (PV1) på Wexiödisk AB där diskmaskiner av huvtyp tillverkas. Syftet med detta examensarbete har varit att undersöka vilka lagerstyrningsmodeller som är lämpliga för att styra avdelningens materialflöden med. Arbetet har genomförts i två steg. Först behandlades artiklar unika för produkterna vid PV1, därefter artiklar gemensamma med andra produkter. Enligt modeller ur relevant litteratur utformades förslag på hur dessa kunde appliceras praktiskt. Förslagen presenterades och diskuterades med berörd personal som valde Tvåbingesystem 2. Ett test gjordes enligt principen ”den japanska sjön” vilket innebar lägre lagernivåer i lastbärarna. De problem som uppstod noterades. Resultatet blev att antalet artiklar som plockades i veckosatser minskades vilket skapat underlag för att minska administrationen av tillhörande plocklistor. Plockvagnen har kunnat tas bort vilket frigjort yta vid monteringsavdelningen. Förutsättningar finns att slå samman två plocklistor till en och därmed förenkla arbetet för förrådspersonalen. / This degree project has been performed at Production unit 1 (PV1) at Wexiödisk AB, where hood type washing machines is manufactured. The purpose of this project has been to investigate which inventory control models that could be suitable to control the section’s material supplies. The work has been accomplished in two steps. At first, items unique to products manufactured at PV1 were treated, followed by items common with other products. According models in relevant literature, suggestions were made to how the models could be applied practically. The suggestions was presented to and discussed with the parties concerned who chose Two-bin system 2. A trial was carried out according to the principle of “the Japanese river” which implied lowered inventory levels. The problems that occurred were noted. The result was that the number of items that was weekly picked and distributed was reduced which has created a basis to also reduce the administration of the systems picking lists. The item wagon has been removed which has cleared floor space at the assembly section. Conditions have been created to merge two picking lists into one and thereby simplify the work for the inventory staff.

This thesis involves the development of a system for control of a marine current energy conversion system. The control system is developed on the principles of load control, i.e. it aims to control the rotational speed of the turbine by controlling the power extracted from the generator. The system operates by feedback of the generator DC-voltage and current as well as the speed of the water current passing through the turbine. An IGBT-transistor controlled by an AVR-microcontroller executes control of the generator and hence the turbine. A digitally implemented PID-controller serves as the fundamental automatic control regime. The control system can be operated from a PC-application connected to the microcontroller through a serial wire connection. From the graphical user interface ofthe PC-application the system operator can set the system control parameters and monitor the state of the generator and turbine. The control system can be set to keep the turbine operating at a desired tip speed ratio, rotational speed or generator voltage. Further, for purposes of indoor testing of the control system a separate system, a motor control system, was developed as a part of this thesis work. The purpose of the motor control system is to enable simulating the behavior of a turbine with a motor driving the generator instead of an actual turbine. The motor control system operates by control of an ACS800 variable frequency drive that is connected to the motor. The motor control system allows its operator to feed in data describing the variations in water speed over time as well as data describing how the simulated turbine's power coefficient depends on its tip speed ratio. From this data the motor control system continuously calculates the torque that should be put on the generator axis by the motor. Results from test runs of the system show that the performance of the system is good. The system responds quickly to changes in the control parameters. Also the system manages to keep the specified control parameter quite well even during rapid changes in the water speed.

This thesis covers the modelling of a Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) in a Combined Cycle Power Plant(CCPP). This kind of power plant has become more and more utilized because of its high efficiency and low emissions. The HRSG plays a central role in the generation of steam using the exhaust heat from the gas turbine. The purpose of the thesis was to develop efficient dynamic models for the physical components in the HRSG using the modelling and simulation software Dymola. The models are then to be used for simulations of a complete CCPP.The main application is to use the complete model to introduce various disturbances and study their consequences inthe different components in the CCPP by analyzing the simulation results. The thesis is a part of an ongoingdevelopment process for the dynamic simulation capabilities offered by the Solution department at SIT AB. First, there is a theoretical explanation of the CCPP components and control system included in the scope of this thesis. Then the development method is described and the top-down approach that was used is explained. The structure and equations used are reported for each of the developed models and a functional description is given. Inorder to ensure that the HRSG model would function in a complete CCPP model, adaptations were made and tuning was performed on the existing surrounding component models in the CCPP. Static verifications of the models are performed by comparison to Siemens in-house software for static calculations. Dynamic verification was partially done, but work remains to guarantee the validity in a wide operating range. As a result of this thesis efficient models for the drum boiler and its control system have been developed. An operational model of a complete CCPP has been built. This was done integrating the developed models during the work with this thesis together with adaptations of already developed models. Steady state for the CCPP model is achieved during simulation and various disturbances can then be introduced and studied. Simulation time for a typical test case is longer than the time limit that has been set, mainly because of the gas turbine model. When using linear functions to approximate the gas turbine start-up curves instead, the simulation finishes within the set simulation time limit of 5 minutes for a typical test case.