This study discusses the design of a force control strategy for reducing force disturbances in the Virginia Tech – Federal Railroad Administration (VT-FRA) Roller Rig. The VT-FRA Roller Rig is a state-of-the-art roller Rig for studying contact mechanics. It consists of a 0.2m diameter wheel and a 1m diameter roller in vertical configuration, which replicates the wheel-rail contact in a 1/4th scale. The Rig has two 19.4 kW servo motors for powering the rotational bodies and six heavy-duty servo linear actuators that control other boundary conditions. The Rig was operationalized successfully with all degrees of freedom working in the default position feedback control. During the Rig's commissioning, this approach was found to result in vertical force fluctuations that are larger than desired. Since the vertical force affects the longitudinal and lateral traction between the wheel and roller, keeping the fluctuations to a minimum provides a better test condition. Testing and data analysis revealed the issue to be in the control method. The relative position of the wheel and roller was being controlled instead of controlling the forces between them. The latter is a far more challenging control setup because it requires a faster dynamic response and full knowledge of forces at the interface. Additionally, force control could result in dynamic instability more readily than position control. Multiple methods for force control are explored and documented. The most satisfactory solution is found in a cascaded loop force/position controller. The closed loop system is tested for stability and performance at various load, speed, and creepage conditions. The results indicate that the controller is able to reduce the standard deviation of vertical force fluctuations at the wheel-rail contact by a factor of four. In terms of power of the vertical force fluctuations, this corresponds to a 12 dB reduction with the force control when compared with the previous control method. This study also explores the possibility of automating the tests in order to enable running a larger number of tests in a shorter period of time. A multi-thread software is developed in C++ for executing a user-defined position, velocity, or force vs. time trajectory, and for recording the data automatically. The software also provides continuous monitoring, and performs a safe shutdown if a fault is detected. An intuitive GUI is provided for constant data polling and ease of user operation. The code is modular in order to accommodate future modifications and additions for various testing needs. The engineering upgrades included in this study, together with the baseline testing, complete the commissioning of the VT-FRA Roller Rig. With unparalleled parameter control and testing repeatability, the VT-FRA Roller Rig holds the promise of being used successfully for various contact mechanics needs that may arise in the railroad industry. / MS / Roller Rigs have seen widespread use around the world for research and development of railway vehicles. These test rigs are specialized machinery that provide the means to test a particular aspect of railroading in a controlled environment, allowing for thorough parametric analyses which aid in the design and development of railroad vehicles. One such test rig is the Virginia Tech – Federal Railroad Administration (VT-FRA) Roller Rig, located at the Railway Technologies Laboratory in Blacksburg, Virginia. It is a state-of-the-art test rig which is developed with the objective of providing a controlled test environment for studying railway contact mechanics. A good understanding of the wheel/rail contact is critical to railroad engineering, and this problem has been the subject of research for about a century now. Several compelling mathematical models have been proposed, but the experimental verification of those theories has proven to be difficult. Traditionally, field testing data has been utilized for comparison with prediction from the models. However, field tests are plagued by a low level of noise control and the inability to carry out sophisticated parametric analyses. VT-FRA Roller Rig holds the promise to fill this gap with its sophisticated electro-mechanical design and high precision instrumentation. The VT-FRA Roller Rig replicates the wheel-rail contact in a 1 /4 th scale by utilizing the INRETS scaling strategy. The locomotive wheel is replicated by a 0.2m diameter wheel and the tangent track is replicated by a 1m diameter roller. The relative size difference ensures that the contact distortion effects from the use of roller are kept to a minimum. The wheel and the roller are arranged in a vertical configuration, and are independently powered by two 19.4 kW servo motors. This enables the VT-FRA Roller Rig to achieve a precise creepage control of up to 0.1%. VT-FRA Roller Rig also has six heavy-duty servo linear actuators which are responsible for controlling four boundary conditions: cant angle, angle of attack, lateral displacement and vertical load. A sophisticated six-axis contact force-moment measurement system allows for precise measurements with a high dynamic bandwidth. The Rig was operationalized successfully with all degrees of freedom working in the default position feedback control. During the Rig’s commissioning, this approach was found to result in force fluctuations that were larger than desired. Since the vertical force affects the longitudinal and lateral traction between the wheel and roller, keeping the fluctuations to a minimum provides a better test condition. Testing and data analysis revealed the issue to be in the control method. The relative position of the wheel and roller was being controlled instead of controlling the forces between them. This study documents the development process of a reliable force control methodology for the VTFRA Roller Rig. Force control is a far more challenging control problem when compared to position control because it requires a faster dynamic response and full knowledge of forces at the interface. Additionally, force control could result in dynamic instability more readily than position control. Multiple methods for force control were implemented on the VT-FRA Roller Rig. Satisfactory solution is achieved with the complicated cascaded loop force/position controller, and the stability and performance of the control system is ensured by a slew of tests at various operating conditions. This study also explores the possibility of automating the tests in order to enable running a larger number of tests in a shorter period of time. A multi-thread software is developed in C++ for executing a user-defined position, velocity, or force vs. time trajectory, and for recording the data automatically. The software also provides continuous monitoring, and performs a safe shutdown if a fault is detected. An intuitive GUI is provided for constant data polling and ease of user operation. The code is modular in order to accommodate future modifications and additions for various testing needs. The engineering upgrades included in this study, together with the baseline testing, complete the commissioning of the VT-FRA Roller Rig. With unparalleled parameter control and testing repeatability, the VT-FRA Roller Rig holds the promise of being used successfully for various contact mechanics needs that may arise in the railroad industry.

Relay-based cooperation promises significant gains in a wireless network as it provides an inde-pendent path between a source and a destination. Using simple single antenna nodes, it exploits the spatial diversity provided by the geographically separated nodes in a network to improve the robustness of the communication system against fading. Among the cooperative commu¬nication schemes, the amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying scheme is considered to be easy to implement since the relay does not need to decode its received signal. Instead, it just forwards to the destination the signal it receives from the source. We analyze the performance of fixed-gain AF relaying with imperfect channel knowledge that is acquired through an AF relay-specific training protocol. The analysis is challenging because the received signal at the destination contains the product (or cascade) of source-relay (SR) and relay-destination (RD) complex baseband channel gains, and additional products terms that arise due to imperfect estimation related errors. We focus on the time-efficient cascaded channel estimation (CCE) protocol to acquire the channel estimates at the destination. Using it, the destination can only estimate the product of SR and RD complex baseband channel gains, but not the two separately. Our analysis encompasses a single AF relay system and an opportunistic system with mul¬tiple AF relays, among which one is selected to forward its received signal to the destination, based on its SR and RD complex baseband channel gains. For a single relay system, we first de¬velop a novel SEP expression and a tight SEP upper bound. We then analyze the opportunistic multi-relay system, in which both selection and coherent demodulation use imperfect channel estimates. A distinctive aspect of our approach is the use of as few simplifying approximations as possible. It results in a new analysis that is accurate at signal-to-noise-ratios as low as 1 dB for single and multi-relay systems. Further, the training protocol is an integral part of the model and analysis. Using an insightful asymptotic analysis, we then present a simple, closed-form, nearly-optimal solution for allocation of energy between pilot and data symbols at the source and relay(s). Further, the optimal energy allocation between a source and a relay is characterized when both together operate under a sum energy constraint, as has often been assumed in the literature. In summary, the sum total of the results in this work provides a rigorous and accurate performance characterization and optimization of cascaded channel estimation for AF relaying.

Renewable energy is harnessed from continuously replenishing natural processes. Some commonly known are sunlight, water, wind, tides, geothermal heat and various forms of biomass. The focus on renewable energy has over the past few decades intensified greatly. This thesis contributes to the research on developing renewable energy technologies, within the wind power, wave power and marine current power projects at the division of Electricity, Uppsala University. In this thesis grid connection of permanent magnet generator based renewable energy sources is evaluated. A tap transformer based grid connection system has been constructed and experimentally evaluated for a vertical axis wind turbine. Full range variable speed operation of the turbine is enabled by using the different step-up ratios of a tap transformer. This removes the need for a DC/DC step or an active rectifier on the generator side of the full frequency converter and thereby reduces system complexity. Experiments and simulations of the system for variable speed operation are done and efficiency and harmonic content are evaluated.  The work presented in the thesis has also contributed to the design, construction and evaluation of a full-scale offshore marine substation for wave power intended to grid connect a farm of wave energy converters. The function of the marine substation has been experimentally tested and the substation is ready for deployment. Results from the system verification are presented. Special focus is on the transformer losses and transformer in-rush currents. A control and grid connection system for a vertical axis marine current energy converter has been designed and constructed. The grid connection is done with a back-to-back 2L-3L system with a three level cascaded H-bridge converter grid side. The system has been tested in the laboratory and is ready to be installed at the experimental site. Results from the laboratory testing of the system are presented. / Wind Power / Wave Power / Marine Currnet Power

This master's thesis deals with the control design method called Non-linear Dynamic Inversion (NDI) and how it can be applied to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). In this thesis, simulations are conducted using a model for the unmanned aerial vehicle SHARC (Swedish Highly Advanced Research Configuration), which Saab AB is developing. The idea with NDI is to cancel the non-linear dynamics and then the system can be controlled as a linear system. This design method needs much information about the system, or the output will not be as desired. Since it is impossible to know the exact mathematical model of a system, some kind of robust control theory is needed. In this thesis integral action is used. A problem with NDI is that the mathematical model of a system is often very complex, which means that the controller also will be complex. Therefore, a controller that uses pure NDI is only discussed, and the simulations are instead based on approximations that use a cascaded NDI. Two such methods are investigated. One that uses much information from aerodata tables, and one that uses the derivatives of some measured outputs. Both methods generate satisfying results. The outputs from the second method are more oscillatory but the method is found to be more robust. If the signals are noisy, indications are that method one will be better.

Previous studies have demonstrated that many existing communication systems can be formulated within a unified multirate filterbank transceiver model. A redundant block transmission system implemented via this unified multirate filterbank transceiver model is usually known as a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) system in literature. This dissertation devises an optimum linear block-based precoder and the corresponding equalizer for MIMO systems over perfect reconstruction (PR) channels by exploiting the proposed oblique projection framework. Particularly, two main criteria of interest in a digital communication link with limited transmission power are investigated, namely, average bit error rate (BER) minimization and mutual information rate maximization. The study framework is developed as follows. For a block-based precoder, a received signal model is formulated for the two redundancy schemes, viz., trailing-zeros (TZ) and cyclic-prefix (CP). By exploiting the property of oblique projection, a cascaded equalizer for block transmission systems (i.e., MIMO systems) is proposed and implemented with a scheme, in which the inter-block interference (IBI) is completely eliminated by the oblique projection and followed by a matrix degree of freedom for inter-symbol interference (ISI) equalization. With the available channel state information at the transmitter side, the matrix for ISI equalization of the cascaded equalizer is utilized to design an optimum linear block-based precoder, such that the BER is minimized (or the mutual information rate is maximized), subject to the ISI-free and the transmission power constraints. Accordingly, the cascaded equalizer with the ISI-free constraint yields a cascaded ZF equalizer. Theoretical derivations and simulation results confirm that the proposed framework not only retains identical BER and information rate performances to previous works for cases with sufficient redundancy, but also allows their results to be extended to the cases of insufficient redundancy.

<p>This master's thesis deals with the control design method called Non-linear Dynamic Inversion (NDI) and how it can be applied to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). In this thesis, simulations are conducted using a model for the unmanned aerial vehicle SHARC (Swedish Highly Advanced Research Configuration), which Saab AB is developing. </p><p>The idea with NDI is to cancel the non-linear dynamics and then the system can be controlled as a linear system. This design method needs much information about the system, or the output will not be as desired. Since it is impossible to know the exact mathematical model of a system, some kind of robust control theory is needed. In this thesis integral action is used. </p><p>A problem with NDI is that the mathematical model of a system is often very complex, which means that the controller also will be complex. Therefore, a controller that uses pure NDI is only discussed, and the simulations are instead based on approximations that use a cascaded NDI. Two such methods are investigated. One that uses much information from aerodata tables, and one that uses the derivatives of some measured outputs. Both methods generate satisfying results. The outputs from the second method are more oscillatory but the method is found to be more robust. If the signals are noisy, indications are that method one will be better.</p>

No description available.

Wave power is a renewable energy source with great potential, which is why there are more than a hundred ongoing wave power projects around the world. At the Division of Electricity, Uppsala University, a point-absorber type wave energy converter (WEC) has been proposed and developed. The WEC consists of a linear synchronous generator placed on the seabed, connected to a buoy floating on the surface. Power is absorbed by heave motion of the buoy, and converted into electric energy by the generator. The point-absorber WEC must be physically much smaller than the wavelength of the incoming waves, and can therefore not be scaled to very high power levels. Instead, the total power output is boosted by increasing the number of WECs, connecting them in wave power farms. To transfer the electric energy to the grid, an intermediate marine substation is proposed, where an AC/DC/AC conversion step is performed. Within this PhD-work, a full-scale offshore marine substation has been designed, constructed and experimentally evaluated. The substation is rated for grid-connection of seven WECs to the local 1kV-grid, and is placed on the seabed 3km off the coast at a depth of 25m. Various aspects of the substation design have been considered, including the mechanical and electrical systems, the WEC electrical interface, offshore operations and the automatic grid connection control system. A tap change circuit and different multilevel topologies have also been proposed. This dissertation has an experimental approach, validating a major part of the work with lab results. The final substation electrical circuit has been tested at rated grid voltage with a fluctuating input power source. The efficiency has been measured and the implemented functions are verified. Offshore operations have been successfully carried out and offshore wave farm data is expected in the nearby future.

Ce travail concerne la linéarisation des amplificateurs de haute puissance en utilisant la pré-distorsion numérique. L’amplificateur de haute puissance est un composant non-linéaire. La pré-distorsion numérique adaptative en bande de base est un technique efficace pour linéariser ses non-linéarités et ses effets de mémoire. Les modèles de la pré-distorsion numérique de basse complexité sont étudiés dans cette thèse. Un algorithme est proposé pour déterminer une structure optimale de modèle uni-étage ou multi-étage en prenant compte du compromis entre la précision de modélisation et la complexité. La structure cascadée, qui est avantageuse en complexité comparé avec celle d'uni-étage, est étudiée avec des méthodes d'identifications différentes. En termes d'implémentations expérimentales, l'étude d'impact des choix de gain différents est approfondie dans cette thèse. Toutes les études ont été évaluées par un amplificateur de puissance Doherty / This dissertation contributes to the linearization techniques of high power amplifier using digital predistortion method. High power amplifier is one of the most nonlinear components in radio transmitters. Unfortunately, for most current types of power amplifiers, a good efficiency is obtained at the price of a poor linearity especially with modern communication waveforms. Baseband adaptive digital predistortion is a powerful technique to linearize the power amplifiers and allows to push the power amplifier operation point towards its high efficiency region. Linearization of power amplifiers using digital predistortion with low complexities is the focus of this dissertation. An algorithm is proposed to determine an optimal model structure of single-stage or multi-stage predistorter according to a trade-off between modeling accuracy and model complexity. Multi-stage cascaded digital predistortions are studied with different identification methods, which have advantages on complexity of model identification compared with single-stage structure. The linearization performances are validated by experimental implementations on test bench. In terms of experimental implementations, this dissertation studies the impact of different gain choices on linearized power amplifier. All studies are evaluated with a Doherty power amplifier

AssociaÃÃo TÃcnico-CientÃfica Eng. Paulo de Frontin / This paper presents the study and development of a voltage impulse generator using a cascaded boost converter topology operating in Discontinuous Conduction Mode (DCM) which will be used for the inspection of grounding systems used by electric power companies. The output voltage of the converter is applied to the grounding system which behaves as a load. The signal applied to the ground was measured by the data acquisition system and analyzed by an intelligent algorithms software. The voltage has the characteristics of a double exponential waveform which is a mathematical model used for study of lightning. Furthermore, the impulse generator has the option to produce a square waveform output voltage. Unlike, the traditional impulse generator with spark gaps, which was disadvantages of poor lifetime and the need of external system to operating the same, the developed generator uses only semiconductor devices in its construction. A theoretical study was carried out through qualitative and quantitative analyzes moreover, the switching process and the losses in the converter components were studied. In this work was performed the design of a cascaded boost converter for evaluating grounding systems with approximated 156 W, input voltage of 110 Vac rms and an output peak voltage of approximately 880 VDC, which correspond to the sum each voltage capacitor of the boost converter, when they are connected in series. A prototype with the indicated specifications was implemented and experimentally tested in the laboratory and real conditions using four grounding systems configurations. Tests were performed considering that the grounding impedance is resistive. The obtained experimental and simulation results are used to validate the theoretical analysis and the designed converter. / Este trabalho apresenta o estudo e desenvolvimento de um gerador de impulsos de tensÃo usando a topologia de um conversor boost em cascata operando em Modo de ConduÃÃo DescontÃnua (MCD) que serà utilizado para inspeÃÃo de sistemas de aterramentos usados pelas concessionÃrias de energia elÃtrica. A tensÃo obtida na saÃda do conversor à aplicada ao sistema de aterramento que se comporta como uma carga. O sinal aplicado ao aterramento à medido pelo sistema de aquisiÃÃo de dados e analisado pelo software por algoritmos inteligentes. A tensÃo aplicada tem as caracterÃsticas de uma onda tipo dupla exponencial que à um modelo matemÃtico para estudo de descargas atmosfÃricas. AlÃm disso, o gerador poderà gerar tensÃes com caracterÃsticas de uma onda quadrada. O gerador de impulsos desenvolvido utiliza apenas dispositivos semicondutores na sua construÃÃo que apresentam as vantagens de possuir uma longa vida Ãtil, podem operar em altas frequÃncias, sÃo acionados com baixa tensÃo e possuem uma baixa queda de tensÃo ao contrÃrio dos tradicionais geradores de impulsos que utilizam os spark gaps para chaveamento que apresentam como desvantagens a baixa vida Ãtil e a necessidade de um sistema externo para funcionamento da mesma. Um estudo teÃrico foi realizado atravÃs das anÃlises qualitativa e quantitativa, alÃm das anÃlises do processo de comutaÃÃo e das perdas nos componentes do conversor. Neste trabalho foi realizado o projeto do conversor boost em cascata para inspeÃÃo de sistemas de aterramento com uma potÃncia aproximada de 156 W, tensÃo de entrada eficaz de 110 Vca e tensÃo de pico de aproximadamente 880 Vcc que corresponde à soma da tensÃo dos capacitores do conversor boost quando estÃo dispostos em sÃrie. Um protÃtipo com as especificaÃÃes indicadas foi construÃdo e testado experimentalmente em laboratÃrio e em campo utilizando quatro topologias de sistemas de aterramento. Foram realizados testes considerando que a impedÃncia de aterramento era puramente resistiva. Os resultados de simulaÃÃo e experimentais obtidos sÃo utilizados para validar a anÃlise teÃrica e o projeto realizado.