This report presents the process of design and implementation of a battery charger for a Li-ion battery. The development of this battery charger includes the component from Linear Technology LTC4015. This component integrates the functions of a battery charger configured as a buck (step-down) converter. This device must be integrated in a Printed Circuit Board with a specific design. Also, it must be configured using a microcontroller named Raspberry Pi, which also performs the measurements. The method of design is divided in two parts. One is focused on developing the printed circuit board, which includes the simulation of the device and the development of the PCB, and the second one is focused on developing the program used in the microcontroller to manage the operation of the LTC4015. The result is a charge controller device that can be used with different configurations with a buck converter topology. The different parts of the design process are the simulation, the design and the implementation. Each of these parts have a section of results in this report. The simulation section includes results obtained with LTSpice and the device LTC4020, which is a similar device to the LTC4015 but without the Maximum Power Point Tracking mode, which is not modelled in LTSpice. PV is the main power source considered to charge the battery, and is carefully studied in this project. The PV input is studied with LTSpice, first simulating the I-V curve of the schematic of the solar cell. Second, integrating a solar cell in the simulation of the LTC4015. Third, operating the device LTC4015 with a solar panel that is also characterized. The design section includes the electronic components used for the development of the board that integrates the charge controller, the LTC4015 in this case, based on the calculations performed for the requirements of the LTC4015. Finally, the implementation section includes the description of the board implemented but also the description of the configuration and measurement code. The conclusions presented in this report show that the LTC4015 is a battery buck charger with different functions that make it suitable to be used in different solar applications. Also, this report opens new future work lines, such as the full characterization of the board, the implementation of a test bench and the integration of the board in different applications for solar energy systems.

Förr hade controllern en mer analytisk och sammanställande roll, men detta har kommit att förändras genom åren. Decentralisering och bolagisering av företag har blivit allt vanligare, mycket på grund av förändrade marknadsförhållanden. Genom mindre enheter blir det lättare att överblicka företagets alla delar och därmed lättare att styra, eftersom beslut kan fattas närmare marknaden. Här fyller controllern en viktig roll då dennes uppgift är att hjälpa företagsledningen att styra företaget i rätt riktning genom att ta fram olika typer av beslutsunderlag, för att kunna göra det är placeringen viktig. Beroende på vem controllern rapporterar till och vilken roll controllern har så ändras styreffekterna av dennes arbete, dessutom varierar arbetsuppgifterna med placeringen. Vi tyckte därför att det kunde vara intressant att undersöka hur företag i en specifik bransch valt att placera sina controllers. Vi valde klädbranschen då controlleryrket inte har studerats så mycket där. Syftet med uppsatsen är att ta reda på hur olika företag i klädbranschen valt att organisera controllerfunktionen och varför de valt att göra på det sättet. Då vi har ett hermeneutiskt synsätt har vi valt att göra en kvalitativ undersökning med djupintervjuer. Studien innehåller primärdata såväl som sekundärdata och vi har en abduktiv forskningsansats. För att skapa förståelse för hur företagen valt att organisera controllerfunktionen hölls intervjuer med controllers på tre klädföretag, där de beskrev placeringen av controllers i deras organisation. Det vi kom fram till genom vår analys är att det inte finns något bästa sätt att organisera controllerfunktionen. Det är individuellt för varje företag då kringliggande omständigheter varierar, så som företagsstruktur, storlek, nytänkande och dylikt. / Uppsatsnivå: C

Termen controller började användas i Sverige runt år 1970 och är idag en vanligt förekommande syn i platsannonser. Enligt tidigare forskning på området har controllerrollen utvecklats från att ansvara för planering, uppföljning och analysering, till att handla om att hjälpa företaget att nå sina strategiska mål genom avsiktlig påverkan och styrning. Vi har dock fått indikationer på att den traditionella controllerrollen fortfarande utgör en stor del av arbetsmarknaden och vi valde således att undersöka saken närmare. Syftet med denna studie är att ta reda på om en controller idag har samma arbetsuppgifter i verkligheten som i litteraturen samt att bidra med kunskap om företagens avsikter med anställningen av en controller. Med ett hermeneutiskt synsätt har vi valt en kvalitativ forskningsmetod. Uppsatsen bygger på både primär- och sekundärdata och vi har använt en abduktiv forskningsansats. Studiens primärdata innefattar intervjuer med tio respondenter på företag i Västra Götalands län samt en platsannonsuppföljning mot nio företag i Sverige. Uppsatsens sekundärdata innefattar tidigare forskning om controllerrollen. Det resultat vi kommit fram till är att controllerrollen fortfarande är något diffus. Detta trots att problemet uppmärksammades redan för 20 år sedan av bland annat Mattsson (1987). Det är svårt att fastställa varför företag väljer denna titel, då den i många fall passar tämligen dåligt. När det gäller benämningen på tjänsten, finner vi att många respondenter har uppfattningar som avviker från litteraturen om vad som ingår i en controllertjänst. Detta kan bero på okunskap eller förvirring av alla åsikter i ämnet. En del respondenter har själva funderingar över en mer passande titel på respektive tjänst. Vi har fått intrycket av att titeln anses attraktiv och lockar drivna personer som vill jobba inom olika områden i en organisation, därav väljer nog många företag denna titel. Det kan även bero på att tjänsten innefattar en blandning av olika arbetsområden inom ekonomi och att det inte finns någon annan passande titel. Då vi finner business controllerrollen som den tjänst som mest motsvarar den så kallade ”nya controllerrollen”, anser vi att den till viss del har fått förankring i stora företag. Det som saknas är mer fokus på individen i centrum, men business controllerrollen kommer troligen att motsvara den nya controllerrollen inom en snar framtid. I medelstora företag anställs fortfarande controllers med helt olika syften. / Uppsatsnivå: C

A origem da controladoria no Brasil está relacionada a instalação das primeiras empresas multinacionais norte-americanas no país. Na época a função do profissional da controladoria estava ligada à área financeira ou da contabilidade, devido à habilidade de trabalhar com informações econômico-financeiras, bem como, pelo conhecimento sistêmico da organização. Do surgimento da controladoria no Brasil até os dias atuais, o país passou por grandes transformações, especialmente nos aspectos econômicos e sociais, pois o mundo se globalizou, reduzindo as fronteiras entre os países. Para que o país pudesse se inserir neste contexto globalizado foi necessário que o brasileiro se adaptasse a uma nova forma de fazer negócios a nível mundial. Além do que, para se manterem competitivas, as organizações brasileiras passaram a demandar, cada vez mais melhorias em seus processos e controles. Diante disso, este trabalho tem como objetivo evidenciar como ocorreu a evolução da controladoria no Brasil, através do estudo da sua origem, evolução do perfil, atribuições do controller e identificação das principais atribuições da controladoria no país. Quanto ao método classifica-se esta pesquisa como descritiva, sendo conduzida através de pesquisa bibliográfica. Os resultados demonstram que a evolução da controladoria no Brasil, acompanhou a evolução da controladoria a nível mundial, uma vez que ocorreu a partir das necessidades de informações e controles que acompanharam a evolução natural da economia brasileira. Neste contexto, a controladoria passou a ser um importante player da gestão empresarial, pois auxilia os gestores durante todo o processo decisório a fim, de garantir a eficácia do negócio. Entretanto no campo semântico conclui-se que a controladoria ainda precisa evoluir, pois não existe consenso entre os pesquisadores sobre o que é a controladoria, sobre as suas funções e atribuições. / The origin of controllership in Brazil is connected to the settlement of the first US multinational companies in the country. Back then, the function of a controller was linked to finance or accounting, because of the ability to work with economic and financial pieces of information as well as the systemic knowledge of the company. From the beginning of controllership in Brazil to nowadays the country has gone through major changes, especially economic and social aspects as the world has globalized, reducing the boundaries between countries. For the country to enter this globalized context it was necessary for the Brazilian one to adapt to a new way of doing business globally. Moreover, to remain competitive Brazilian companies began demanding more and more improvements in their processes and controls. Thus, this work aims to show how the evolution of controllership was in Brazil, through the controllership origin study, profile evolution checking and the controller assignments and identifying the main tasks of controllership in the country. As for the method this research is descriptive, driven by bibliographic search. The results show that the evolution of controllership in Brazil followed the global controllership evolution once it occurred from the information requirements and controls that followed natural Brazilian economy evolution. In this context, controllership has become a major player in business management, as it assists managers throughout the decision-making process in order to ensure business effectiveness. However, in the semantic field controllership still needs to evolve as there is no consensus among researchers about what controllership is, on its functions and tasks.

TESIS PARA OPTAR AL GRADO DE MAGÍSTER EN CONTROL DE GESTIÓN / El creciente interés y reconocimiento de la importancia del control de gestión en las organizaciones ha estimulado la necesidad de prestar atención al profesional que es responsable del área: el controller. Este trabajo de tesis explora la evolución del controller, investiga los hitos que han marcado las etapas de dicha evolución; identifica los distintos tipos de controller estudiados en la literatura, propone un marco conceptual que describe sistemáticamente la evolución del rol, y, finalmente, usa este marco para identificar y clasificar una muestra de controllers. El conocimiento sobre el rol del controller que se tiene en la actualidad es disperso y depende, en gran medida, de las distintas conceptualizaciones de control de gestión que, además, varían de organización a organización y de una cultura a otra. Este estudio es una propuesta para integrar este conocimiento y proporciona una gran oportunidad para contribuir al entendimiento del rol del controller y de la práctica misma del control de gestión. Las primeras discusiones y análisis sobre el controller surgieron en la década de los años 80 y proponen una distinción entre el rol de control y el rol de servicio, es decir, entre un controller enfocado al reporte y el cumplimiento de lo planificado, y un controller con cada vez más participación en la toma de decisiones del negocio. En paralelo a la evolución teórica del control de gestión, y gracias también a otros factores como los avances de la tecnología de información o el desarrollo de metodologías de contabilidad, diversos autores han notado un cambio en la manera en que el controller es percibido en las organizaciones y lo han clasificado bajo diversos nombres, o arquetipos, teniendo en consideración su origen en áreas de contabilidad y de finanzas, denominándolo como un “contador de fríjoles” o beancounter, hasta ser considerado como un socio del negocio o business partner. En el marco conceptual propuesto en esta tesis se identifican cuatro tipos de controller denominados como: information provider, operational, coordinator y business partner. Cada uno de estos tipos comprende una serie de habilidades y competencias, así como responsabilidades y funciones en la organización en que se desempeña, que son distintivas e incrementales. Un área de control de gestión bien desarrollada puede beneficiar de diversas maneras a la gestión de las organizaciones. Entre estos beneficios se puede contar ayudar a mitigar las necesidades de mejorar la alineación entre personas, departamentos y unidades; de hacer un mejor uso de la información disponible, y de velar por el uso eficiente y eficaz de los recursos. El control de gestión debe adaptarse y responder al contexto de cada organización y a sus necesidades particulares de control. Frente a la rápida evolución que ha tenido el control de gestión tanto en la teoría como en la práctica, para las organizaciones y reclutadores existe la dificultad para reconocer y diferenciar el tipo de controller que mejor se adapta y que mejor puede liderar y potenciar el área, entregando los beneficios asociados al desarrollo de un área de control de gestión y ayudando a tomar mejores decisiones. Como implicancias de este estudio, las organizaciones pueden hacer uso de este marco para evaluar qué tipo de controller necesitan y se adapta mejor a las necesidades de la gestión, ajustar la definición del cargo y definir estrategias más acordes para su desarrollo profesional. Los reclutadores, bien sea internos o externos, pueden hacer uso de este marco para identificar apropiadamente el controller que mejor se adapta a las necesidades de control de la organización y que cuenta con mejores herramientas para liderar el área en la organización al momento de reclutar y seleccionar a posibles candidatos. Los profesionales del área pueden identificar y contrastar su tipo con el requerido por la organización en que trabajan, identificando oportunidades de perfeccionamiento de sus habilidades y competencias profesionales. Finalmente, las universidades y los institutos de formación profesional pueden analizar y actualizar sus programas académicos para responder de mejor manera a las necesidades del mercado laboral, de acuerdo con el enfoque de formación que quieran entregar a sus egresados.

The purpose of this work is to develop a maximum power tracking control strategy for variable speed wind turbine systems. Modern wind turbine control systems are slow, and they depend on the design parameters of the turbine and use wind and/or rotor speed measurements as control variable inputs. The dependence on the accuracy of the measurement devices makes the controller less reliable. The proposed control scheme is based on the stiff system concept and provides a fast response and a dynamic solution to the complicated aerodynamic system. This control scheme provides a response to the wind changes without the knowledge of wind speed and turbine parameters. The system consists of a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM), a passive rectifier, a dc/dc boost converter, a current controlled voltage source inverter, and a microcontroller that commands the dc/dc converter to control the generator for maximum power extraction. The microcontroller will also be able to control the current output of the three-phase inverter. In this work, the aerodynamic characteristics of wind turbines and the power conversion system topology are explained. The maximum power tracking control algorithm with a variable step estimator is introduced and the modeling and simulation of the wind turbine generator system using the MATLAB/SIMULINK® software is presented and its results show, at least in principle, that the maximum power tracking algorithm developed is suitable for wind turbine generation systems.

The purpose of this work is to develop a maximum power tracking control strategy for variable speed wind turbine systems. Modern wind turbine control systems are slow, and they depend on the design parameters of the turbine and use wind and/or rotor speed measurements as control variable inputs. The dependence on the accuracy of the measurement devices makes the controller less reliable. The proposed control scheme is based on the stiff system concept and provides a fast response and a dynamic solution to the complicated aerodynamic system. This control scheme provides a response to the wind changes without the knowledge of wind speed and turbine parameters. The system consists of a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM), a passive rectifier, a dc/dc boost converter, a current controlled voltage source inverter, and a microcontroller that commands the dc/dc converter to control the generator for maximum power extraction. The microcontroller will also be able to control the current output of the three-phase inverter. In this work, the aerodynamic characteristics of wind turbines and the power conversion system topology are explained. The maximum power tracking control algorithm with a variable step estimator is introduced and the modeling and simulation of the wind turbine generator system using the MATLAB/SIMULINK® software is presented and its results show, at least in principle, that the maximum power tracking algorithm developed is suitable for wind turbine generation systems.

This report deals with the design of a controller for SmartMedia™ flash memory cards, based on a hardware description found in the SmartMedia™ Interface Library - SMIL. The design was made on logic gate level, using standard cells in OrCAD Capture. After simulation of the design in PSpice A/D, it was exported as an EDIF netlist, which was used to make a chip layout in L-Edit, a layout tool for making integrated circuits. The layout was made using a method called Standard Place and Route - SPR, where the layout tool places standard cells from a library and connects them according to the EDIF netlist. A netlist which could be simulated in PSpice was extracted from the finished chip layout to verify that the function of the design was the same as before the transition from schematic to layout. The standard cells in the library used to make the chip layout have to meet certain criteria in order for both SPR and extraction to work and this is also discussed.

An autonomous machine is a machine that can navigate through its environment without human interactions. These machines use sensors to sense the environment and have computing abilities for receiving and interpreting the sensory data as well as for controlling their displacement. At the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Canada), a low level autonomous machine was developed. This low level machine was the sensor system for an autonomous machine. The machine was capable of sensing the environment and carrying out actions based on commands sent to it. This machine provided a sensing and control layer, but the path planning (decision making) part of the autonomous machine was not developed.<p>This autonomous machine was developed on a Case IH DX 34H tractor with the purpose of providing a machine for testing software and sensors in a true agricultural environment. The tractor was equipped with sensors capable of sensing the speed and heading of the tractor. A control architecture was developed that received input commands from a human or computer in the form of a target heading and speed. The control architecture then adjusted controls on the tractor to make the tractor reach and maintain the target heading and speed until a new command was provided. The tractor was capable of being used in all kinds of weather, although some minor issues arose when testing in rain and snow. The sensor platform developed was found to be insufficient for proper control. The control structure appeared to work correctly, but was hindered by the poor sensor platform performance.

This study is concentrated on modelling and developing the controller for the light-duty hybrid electric truck. The hybrid electric vehicle has advantages in fuel economy. However, there have been relatively few studies on commercial HEVs, whilst a considerable number of studies on the hybrid electric system have been conducted in the field of passenger cars. So the current status and the methodologies to develop the LD hybrid electric truck model have been studied through the literature review. The modelling process used in this study is divided into three major stages. The first stage is to determine the structure of the hybrid electric truck and define the hardware. The second is the component modelling using the AMESim simulation tool to develop a forward facing model. In order to complete the component modelling, the information and data were collected from various sources including references and ADVISOR. The third stage is concerned with the controller which was written in Simulink. This was run in a co-simulation with the AMESim vehicle model. Through the initial simulation, the charge-sustaining performance of this controller was verified and improved. Finally, the simulations for the complete model were carried out over a number of drive cycles, such as CBDTRUCK, JE05, and TRL LGV drive cycle, to evaluate and analyse the effect on the fuel economy and the vehicle performance by the engine operating zone and the EM power capacity. The report presents a comparison of the fuel efficiency of the conventional vehicle and the LD hybrid electric truck. The results obtained by the simulation show the feasibility to build the complete vehicle with the designed controller.