En la actualidad, cada vez se hace más frecuente el uso de drones para la recopilación de imágenes. Debido a la accesibilidad que poseen estos para sobrevolar espacios aéreos. Sin embargo, en esta tarea de recopilación de imágenes se dan los efectos de subexposición y sobreexposición. Los cuales dependiendo de su intensidad llegan a la saturación de diferentes pixeles de la imagen en las tonalidades negras y blancas respectivamente. Esta saturación conlleva a la pérdida de información en dichas imágenes. La presente tesis se basa en el diseño de un módulo que automatice la regulación del tiempo de exposición de un par de cámaras de la marca Point Grey. Esta regulación se dará mediante el uso de un sensor de luminosidad, el cual medirá los niveles de flujo luminoso incidentes a la cámara por parte del escenario a fotografiar. La metodología seguida será la de integración por partes, desarrollando primero la comunicación del sensor de luminosidad con el controlador. Luego, se desarrollará la comunicación de las cámaras con el controlador haciendo una regulación manual del tiempo de exposición. Finalmente, se integrará ambas partes y se remplazará la regulación manual por una automática en base a las medidas que registre el sensor de luminosidad. La lógica que relaciona la iluminación y el tiempo de exposición se condensa en una ecuación, la cual será ajustada mediante las pruebas realizadas para reducir los efectos de subexposición y sobreexposición.

At many American colleges and universities, efforts to enhance the retention of a diverse group of students have become a priority. This study represents part of this effort at the University of Central Florida, a large public suburban state university in the South. Specifically, this investigation evaluated Pegasus '95 and the Academic Mentoring Program offered in the Summer and Fall Semesters of 1995 to specially-admitted students who fell short of regular admissions requirements. During the summer, Pegasus '95 provided testing, orientation, guided course work, study skills workshops, and mentoring, both individually and in the context of cohesive socialization groups of approximately 15 students each. In the Fall 1995 Semester, students were highly encouraged to participate in one-on-one mentoring in the Academic Mentoring Program (AMP) available through the Student Academic Resource Center (SARC), a university-based office which provides a variety of academic assistance services. A multiple regression analysis was conducted using the following independent predictor variables: gender, SAT/ACT scores, Pegasus participation, use of the AMP in the Fall 1995 semester, four summary scores from the College Student Inventory (CSI), and eight scaled scores from the Noncognitive Questionnaire (NCQ). Dependent variables were individual student GPA in the Summer and Fall 1995 semesters, cumulative GPA after two semesters, and enrolled credit hours into the Spring 1996 academic term. Overall, it was expected that a combination of predictor variables, including both traditional cognitive factors (SAT/ACT scores and high school GPA) and noncognitive factors (NCQ scores and CSI scores, Pegasus participation, and mentoring by the SARC) would significantly predict GP A and retention. The study found that a regression equation including gender, high school GPA, overall SAT scores and the eight NCQ scale scores significantly predicted Fall 1995 and cumulative GPA after two semesters but not Summer 1995 GPA or credit hours enrolled in Spring 1996. Attendance at Pegasus meetings was also shown to be significantly and positively associated with Fall 1995 GPA and cumulative GPA after two semesters but not of Summer 1995 GPA or credit hours enrolled in Spring 1996. Gender, high school GP A, the ACT score and the CSI Dropout Proneness scale significantly predicted credit hours enrolled in Spring 1996, as did use of the AMP program provided by the SARC. Of particular interest was the finding that including noncognitive factors in significant equations led to a greater explanation of the variance than could be obtained with any of the traditional cognitive measurements alone, suggesting that with academically disadvantaged students noncognitive measures must be considered in predicting who can succeed and persist in college.

Due to increasing concerns on the power quality, power factor correction (PFC) has become an important issue in light-emitting diode (LED) lighting applications. A boost converter is one of the most well-known PFC topologies, due to its simple circuitry, simple control scheme and small number of passive components. Even though a boost converter is recognized as a typical PFC converter, its output voltage must be higher than its input voltage. This feature is disadvantageous because the device requires an additional buck-stage for LED lighting systems. As an alternative to the boost converter, a single-ended primary-inductor converter (SEPIC) allows output voltage to be lower or higher than the input voltage. Thus, the SEPIC converter is gaining popularity as a LED driver because it does not require additional power conversion stage. However, designing a controller to meet stability requirements and international standards is quite challenging for SEPIC converters. Additionally, if the digital controller is adopted for its built-in communication features, creating a digitally controlled SEPIC converter would be even more challenging. This thesis focuses on the state-space averaging modeling of the SEPIC PFC converter and the design of controllers based on both analog and digital controls with precise modeling. The proposed SEPIC converter incorporates RC damping circuits to avoid the instability, and thus the entire SEPIC converter becomes a 5th order system. Such a high-order system model was derived mathematically and verified with circuit simulator modeling. After verification of the circuit model, the controller was designed with analog transfer functions and converted to and the discrete domain for digital controller implementation. A 150-W single-switch bridgeless SEPIC PFC converter prototype was built accordingly to verify the design. In addition to the current loop controller design for stability, a feed-forward compensator for is introduced and derived for better waveform quality. Simulation results and experiment results are also presented to verify the complete controller with feed-forward compensation. The Texas Instruments (TI) digital signal processor (DSP) TMS320F28335 was adopted for digital controller implementation. For comparison purpose, the TI UC3854 controller was implemented to verify the analog controller design results. / Master of Science

This thesis proposes a novel approach to power electronics system design that is based on the open-architecture distributed digital controller and modular power electronics building blocks (PEBBs). The proposed distributed digital controller partitions the controller in three levels of control authority. The power stage controller, designated as hardware manager, is responsible for low-level hardware oriented tasks; the high level controller, designated as applications manager, performs higher-level application-oriented tasks; and the system level controller handles system control and monitoring functions. Communications between the hardware-oriented controller and the higher-level controller are implemented with the previously proposed 125 Mbits/sec daisy-chained fiber optic communication protocol. Real-time control and status data are communicated by means of communication protocol. The distributed controller on the power converter level makes the system open, flexible and simple to use. Furthermore, this work gives an overview and comparison of current state-of-the-art communication protocols for real-time control applications with emphasis on industrial automation and motion control. All of the studied protocols have been considered as local area networks (LAN) for system-level control in power converter systems. The most promising solution has been chosen for the system level communication protocol. This thesis also provides the details of design and implementation of the distributed controller. The design of both the hardware and software components are explained. A 100 kVA three-phase voltage source inverter (VSI) prototype was built and tested using the distributed controller approach to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed concept. / Master of Science

A brief analysis of the nonresonant-coupled parallel resonant converter is performed. The converter is modeled and a reference classical analog controller is designed and simulated. Infrastructure required for digital control of the converter (including anti-aliasing filters and a modulator) is designed and a classical digital controller is designed and simulated, yielding a ~30% degradation in control bandwidth at the worst-case operating point as compared with the analog controller. Based on the strong relationship observed between low-frequency converter gain and operating point, a gain-scheduled digital controller is proposed, designed, and simulated, showing 4:1 improved worst-case control bandwidth as compared with the analog controller. A complete prototype is designed and built which experimentally validates the results of the gain-scheduled controller simulation with good correlation. The three approaches that were investigated are compared and conclusions are drawn. Suggestions for further research are presented. / Master of Science

The digitization of classical control systems presents a number of challenges and opportunities with respect to the miniaturization, distribution, reliability verification and obsolescence of both the controller and the underlying system under control. A method for the design of proportional-integral-derivative (PID) compensators realized in the form of all-digital components is presented. All-digital refers to a system implementation that is realizable with a wide range of digital logic components including discrete digital logic elements and programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as field-programmable gate arrays. The proportional, integral and derivative components of the classical PID control law were re-envisioned in terms of frequency of occurrences or counts for adaptation to combinatorial and sequential digital logic. Modification of the control scheme around this newly formed representation of system error enables the development of a PID-like FPGA-based or PLD-based controller. Details of the design of an all-digital PID-like controller including abstract, causal block diagrams and a MATLAB® and Simulink® based implementation are presented. The compensator was simulated in a velocity tracking DC motor control application and was found to perform comparably to that of a classical PID based control. Methods for assessing the resultant stability of an all-digital PID compensated system under control are discussed.

Un nœud d'un réseau de capteurs sans fil traite dans ses unités de calcul les signaux issus de plusieurs types de capteurs et effectue différentes tâches liées aux protocoles de communication. Devant exécuter plusieurs types de contrôle, sa flexibilité est un paramètre très important. Les solutions à base de microcontrôleurs ou de FPGA ont été proposées pour aborder le besoin de flexibilité, mais au prix d'une efficacité énergétique réduite. Dans cette thèse, des contrôleurs flexibles à ultra-faible énergie basés sur un contexte de micro-tâches reconfigurables sont explorés comme alternative. Des architectures modulaires pour des machines d'états finis (FSM) et des chemins de données (DP) reconfigurables sont proposées. Les techniques de coupure de l'alimentation (PG pour power gating) sont utilisées pour adapter la consommation aux besoins et réduire la puissance statique. Dans un premier temps, des modèles pour l'estimation des paramètres clés d'un circuit avec PG sont proposés au niveau porte. Ensuite, les opportunités des techniques PG sont déterminées sur les FSM et DP reconfigurables pour en réduire l'énergie. Dans les chemins de données, la reconfiguration fait varier la précision des opérateurs et le PG permet d'éteindre les blocs logiques inutilisés. Une gestion de l'alimentation au niveau lookup table (LUT) est proposée pour réduire les courants de fuite en mode actif et en veille dans les FSM reconfigurables. Des résultats montrent les très bonnes performances des architectures proposées par rapport aux processeurs et FPGA. / A wireless sensor network (WSN) node may need to process signals from various sensors and perform different transceiver tasks apart from being able to change its functions dynamically. A controller in the node is therefore required to execute different control tasks to manage its resources implying that flexibility is a key concern. Microcontrollers and FPGAs have been proposed to address the need for flexibility at the cost of reduced energy efficiency. In this thesis, ultra-low power flexible controllers for WSN nodes based on reconfigurable microtasks are explored. A reconfigurable microtask is a digital control unit with a reconfigurable finite state machine (FSM) and datapath. Scalable architectures for reconfigurable FSMs along with variable precision adders in datapath are proposed for flexible controllers in this work. Power gating is considered for FSMs and adders for low power operation. First, the design issues in power gating are studied extensively. Models for estimation of key design parameters of power-gated circuits are derived at gate level. Next, power gating opportunities are determined in reconfigurable adders and FSMs proposed for microtasks. In adders, reconfigurability is used for varying the precision of operation and saving energy by power-gating unused logic. Power gating at the level of lookup table logic is proposed to achieve active leakage power reduction in reconfigurable FSMs. The proposed models are then applied to analyze energy savings in logic clusters due to power gating. Power estimation results show good performance of proposed architectures with respect to different metrics relative to others in the design space of controllers.

Resumo: Este trabalho trata do desenvolvimento e implementação de um sistema de iluminação fluorescente com gerenciamento automático baseado em reatores eletrônicos aplicados a múltiplas lâmpadas fluorescentes. O foco desta pesquisa é direcionado ao desenvolvimento de uma plataforma automática de gerenciamento e supervisão, propiciando o controle de luminosidade, acionamento remoto e também acionamentos programáveis de acordo com o expediente de trabalho do local e condições de iluminação natural do ambiente, além de prover aumento de vida útil das lâmpadas fluorescentes, em função de protocolo proposto para préaquecimento e ignição. Foram acoplados ao sistema sensores de luminosidade e de presença, permitindo a obtenção dos dados necessários para a atuação automática. O controle por calha das lâmpadas fluorescentes é feito por um microcontrolador AtMega8 da ATMEL, o qual é responsável pela automação do sistema. A plataforma de gerenciamento e monitoração utiliza um microcomputador para que seja executado o aplicativo desenvolvido, o qual provê uma interface amigável ao usuário. Assim, um protocolo de comunicação foi desenvolvido para que haja uma comunicação de dados confiável, oferecendo robustez e alta confiabilidade ao controle do sistema de iluminação. Para o processamento dos dados, foi utilizado o barramento serial de comunicação full duplex com padrão RS232 e RS485 com transmissão assíncrona. Adicionalmente, o sistema funciona no sistema mestre-escravo, sendo o microcomputador responsável por enviar endereçamentos e ordens de ação aos microcontroladores, os quais identificam os endereçamentos e dados, executam a ação programada e envia dado de monitoramento ao microcomputador, quando requisitado pelo usuário. / Abstract: In this work, the development and implementation of an illumination fluorescent system with automatic management based on electronic ballast applied to multiple fluorescent lamps are presented. This research is directed in the development of the management and supervision of an automatic platform, allowing the control of luminosity, the remote actuation and also the programmable actuation according with the local business work and conditions of natural light of the environment. In addition, the ballast will provide the increase in the average lifetime for fluorescent lamps, considering a proposed protocol to pre-heating and ignition. The automatic actuation of the system is allowed by the coupling, of the luminosity and presence sensors. The control of fluorescent lamps by channel is executed by an ATMEL's AtMega8 microcontroller, which is responsible for the system automation. The management and monitoring platform uses a microcomputer with purpose to execute the implemented application, which will provide a friendly interface to the user. Thus, a protocol of communication was developed to allow a reliable communication of data, providing robustness and high reliability to the control of lighting system. Considering the processing of data acquired, was used a Serial Bus of communication with full duplex standard RS232 and RS485, with asynchronous transmission. Additionally, the system works in the master-slave mode, and the microcomputer is responsible for sending addresses and orders of action to microcontrollers, which identify and address data, in order to perform the programmed action to it, and in order to send data to the microcomputer, when requested by the user. / Orientador: Carlos Alberto Canesin / Coorientador: Fábio Toshiaki Wakabayashi / Banca: Falcondes Jose Mendes de Seixas / Banca: Ricardo Nederson do Prado / Mestre

Esta dissertação apresenta a modelagem matemática de um giroscópio de controle de momento (CMG) e aplica técnicas de controle digital para o controle de atitude dessa planta. CMGs são atuadores importantes para o controle de atitude de corpos no espaço, tais como satélites e veículos espaciais. Desenvolve-se a modelagem da planta por meio da mecânica Lagrangiana e estudam-se técnicas específicas de controle PID (proporcional-integral-derivativo) e LQR (linear-quadratic regulator ) digitais para aplicação em sistemas com a planta nas configurações desacoplada e acopladas de fase mínima e não-mínima. Realizam-se ensaios via simulação, com o modelo não-linear da planta, bem como via experimentos práticos, com o sistema real, para validar os controladores projetados. Com isso, obtêm-se resultados positivos com ambas as técnicas estudadas, com exceção ao caso acoplado de fase não-mínima, para o qual uma das técnicas não foi capaz de controlar a atitude da planta. / This dissertation presents the mathematical modeling of a control moment gyroscope (CMG) and applies digital control techniques for its attitude control. CMGs are important actuators for bodies attitude control in the space, such as satellites and space vehicles. The system modeling is developed with the Lagrangian mechanics and a digital proportionalintegral- derivative (PID) and a digital linear-quadratic regulator (LQR) control techniques are studied and applied to a decoupled system and coupled systems with minimum and non-minimum phases. Simulation tests with the non-linear plant model and experimental tests with the real plant are done in order to validate the control techniques. Then, positive results are reached with both studied techniques, excepting in the coupled system with non-minimum phase, in which one technique was not able to control it.

Today, the information (signal timings, detector extension, phase sequence, etc.) to install traffic lights on the street are obtained from traffic software simulations platforms, meaning that information from simulation is not tested on the field (intersection where it will be installed) before the installation. Many installed controllers on the street use time of day (TOD) patterns due to cheaper cost than adaptive traffic control systems, but that is not the best solution for traffic volume changes that can occur during the day or even a month. To improve traffic signal operation most of the traffic signal controllers in the same corridor or zone operate in coordination mode. Furthermore, phases need to be in coordination to achieve “green wave”. Green wave is term used when in corridor traffic lights allow continues flow of traffic through intersections that are coordinated. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection