Development of a machine vision dual-axis solar tracking system

Control algorithms applied to active solar tracking systems: A review

Belt conveyor (BC) transportation systems are considered to be the most effective for handling large volumes of bulk material. With regards to the rules of sustainable development, the improvement of belt conveyor technology is, in many cases, focused on environmental issues, which include the idea of energy usage optimization. The key issue in an energy-efficient transportation system is reducing the value of specific energy consumption (SEC) by increasing conveyor capacity whilst decreasing belt conveyor motion resistance. The main idea of this paper is to conduct an analysis of the modernization of existing belt conveyor transportation systems operated in open-pit lignite mines, in order to achieve relatively small electric energy consumption for a considered transportation task. The first part of the paper investigates the relationship between a conveyor’s SEC and material flow rate for various conveyor design parameters. Then, based on multi-parameter simulations, an analysis of electric energy consumption for a belt conveyor transportation system is carried out. Finally, an energy-saving, environmentally friendly solution is presented.

Specific Energy Consumption of a Belt Conveyor System in a Continuous Surface Mine

With the advent of software technologies, over a period of time, the Industrial Control Systems (ICSs) have grown exponentially. Whereas, almost all ICSs comprise Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs), which are the key component for monitoring and controlling complex industrial systems. For decades, traditional HMIs with simple User Interfaces (UIs) remained operational to minimize the complexities and resulting operational costs. However, due to the emergence of smartphone technologies, the perception about user interfaces has been transformed significantly and users now demand same sort of experience with industrial HMIs, as well. There are few industrial solutions, like, ICONICS GraphWorX to support the development of mobile HMI screens. However, such proprietary solutions are quite expensive. Furthermore, the underlying development approaches and source codes are not accessible in public domain. On the other hand, the state-of-the-art approaches for the development of native mobile HMI screens are hard to find in the literature. Consequently, there is dire need of a cost-effective, easy to use, open source framework for the development of native mobile HMI screens. In order to achieve this goal, here we propose, a M odel-driven M obile H MI F ramework ( MMHF ). MMHF comprises, a Unified Modeling Language (UML) Profile for Mobile HMI (UMLPMH) for modeling of HMI screens. MMHF also includes, an open source transformation engine and a M odel D riven M obile-based H MI C ode G enerator (MDMHCG) to automatically transform UMLPMH models into target native mobile HMI implementations. Consequently, MMHF enables simpler way to design the HMI screens using UMLPMH and generates native Mobile HMI Screen implementations automatically using MDMHCG. The empirical evidence of MMHF is demonstrated through three (3) benchmark case studies, which prove that the MMHF is a feasible, cost effective and scalable solution to develop native HMI screens for wide-ranging ICSs.

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A Model-Driven Mobile HMI Framework (MMHF) for Industrial Control Systems

Results of tests into the energy-efficiency of belt conveyor transportation systems indicate that the energy consumption of their drive mechanisms can be limited by lowering the main resistances in the conveyor. The main component of these resistances is represented by belt indentation rolling resistance. Limiting its value will allow a reduction in the amount of energy consumed by the drive mechanisms. This article presents a test rig which enables uncomplicated evaluations of such rolling resistances. It also presents the results of comparative tests performed for five steel-cord conveyor belts. The tests involved a standard belt, a refurbished belt and three energy-saving belts. As temperature significantly influences the values of belt indentation rolling resistance, the tests were performed in both positive and negative temperatures. The results indicate that when compared with the standard belt, the refurbished and the energy-efficient belts generate higher and lower indentation rolling resistances, respectively. In order to demonstrate practical advantages resulting from the use of energy-saving belts, this article also includes calculations of the power demand of a conveyor drive mechanism during one calendar year, as measured on a belt conveyor operated in a mine. The replacement of a standard belt with a refurbished belt generates a power demand higher by 4.8%, and with an energy-efficient belt—lower by 15.3%.

Analysis of the Influence of the Type of Belt on the Energy Consumption of Transport Processes in a Belt Conveyor

Most industrial plants are automated without any operator-machine interaction. This makes it difficult for the operator to at a glance know the state of the machines and the immediate steps to undertake in order to clear any anomalies occurring in the plant. In this paper, consideration was given to the design of an HMI for an automated boiler plant which can be operated both manually and automatically by the press of start buttons. The design stages included screen interfacing for the HMI, flowchart development, programming the HMI by assigning tags, integration into Step 7 brand of PLC using ethernet, simulation of the program using “PLCSIM” and the programming codes of the automated boiler plant. The system gives a real-time view of the industrial plant, gives reduction in the troubleshooting time for faults and assures of safety of operating personnel. The designed HMI will be useful to manufacturing industries having industrial automated systems.

https://cisjournal.org/journalofcomputing/archive/vol5no2/vol5no2_11.pdf

Developing a Human Machine Interface (HMI) for Industrial Automated Systems using Siemens Simatic WinCC Flexible Advanced Software

The need to produce readily accessible, pollution free natural energy such as solar energy has been drawing increasing attention globally. This is due to energy demand, global environmental protection, fast growing population and diminishing resources of grid supply. Effective utilisation of solar energy requires tracking of the sun. In this paper, we proposed a hybrid hardware/software embedded PIC16F877A microcontroller-based dynamic dual axis tracking system. It utilises the solar panel itself as a sensor to determine which part of the sky delivers the most power to the load using stepper motors for alignment. Employing control software, the system automatically controls the PV panel to receive maximum solar energy all day. The PIC16F877A microcontroller, two M42SP-7 stepper motors, two ULN2003 stepper motor drivers, two gear drives and a 10 Watt 12 V monocrystalline solar panel were employed in the hardware design. Programming of the hardware was conducted using mikroBasic software. Cost analysis of the design yielded GH ¢ 522.69 (US $ 124.45). The resulting sun tracking system is therefore cost effective and will go a long way to help rural electrification as well as reduce the burden on grid supply. Original Research Article Normanyo and Awingot; BJAST, 14(4): 1-12, 2016; Article no.BJAST.22955 2

A Solar Radiation Tracker for Solar Energy Optimisation

Hybrid Stepper Motors (HSMs) have received enormous industrial applications due to their higher efficiency, better resolution, better detent torque and smoother operation as compared to other stepper motors and servomotors. HSM conventional control schemes however could not overcome poor damping characteristics at increasing load inertia, high overshoot, undershoot and settling time which compromise motor integrity in terms of efficiency and precise positioning. In this paper, a PI-based Mamdani type Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) was designed for an HSM. Triangular and trapezoidal membership functions for input and output linguistic variables were employed giving 49 rules in the rule base of the FLC. Matlab fuzzy logic toolbox was used for the FLC design. The FLC was used to model a position controller for the HSM in Simulink. The dynamic response for a unit step input for the HSM position control system presented better characteristics in terms of overshoot and undershoot but higher settling time and rise time as compared to the system without FLC. With the FLC, overshoot and undershoot were 0.454% and 1.892% as against 0.562% and 4.069% for the non-FLC respectively. The settling time and rise time were 15.36 ms and 9.83 ms for the FLC as against 13.727 ms and 5.306 ms for the non-FLC respectively. Further, the FLC response had almost no ripples. The FLC could be considered for the control of the HSM.

Matlab Implementation of Position Control of a Hybrid Stepper Motor Using Fuzzy Logic Controller

Driven by constantly increasing energy demands, prices, environmental impact caused by carbon dioxide emissions and global warming, efficient use of energy is gaining grounds in both public and private enterprises. The energy consumption of belt conveyors can be lowered using energy modelling techniques. In this research, 
a resistance-based mathematical energy model was utilised in 
the electrical energy efficiency optimisation of the troughed, inclined belt conveyor system taking into account indentation rolling resistance, bulk solid flexure resistance and secondary resistance as they together contribute 89% resistance to motion. An optimisation problem was formulated to optimise the electrical energy efficiency of the belt conveyor system and subsequently solved using 
the “fmincon” solver and interior point algorithm of the MATLAB optimisation toolbox. Analysis of simulation results showed that for the same given operating capacities, an average energy saving of about 7.42% and an annual total cost savings of Gh¢ 5, 852, 669.00 (USD 1, 083, 827.59) for a 2592-hour operation can be achieved when the used model and optimisation technique are employed over the constant speed operation.

/pdf/application-of-resistance-energy-model-to-optimising-4ex3es6noa.pdf

Application of resistance energy model to optimising electric power consumption of a belt conveyor system

Abstract This paper presents the design of an ELC to control the frequency of the MHPP for a purely resistive unbalanced 3-phase load. This is necessary since most of the researches done on ELC in MHPPs considered the design using balanced 3-phase load. However, in real world the 3-phase load at each phase varies due to the different consumers connected to each phase. In this work, a fuzzy-PI controller was designed to reduce the steady state error of the frequency variations and also optimize the gains of the conventional PI controller. These gains were then used to generate equivalent Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signals to control the firing of Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) to dump excess power to the damper loads when the consumer loads change to maintain the power at the generator output constant. Simulation results of the MHPP under varying unbalanced loads showed that the designed ELC was efficient in maintaining the frequency of the MHPP at 50 Hz with a tolerance of ±2. The ELC also maintained the output power of the generator by ensuring the balance of power between the consumer and damper loads.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/23311916.2022.2057115?needAccess=true

Erwin Normanyo

Papers

Developing a Human Machine Interface (HMI) for Industrial Automated Systems using Siemens Simatic WinCC Flexible Advanced Software

A Solar Radiation Tracker for Solar Energy Optimisation

Matlab Implementation of Position Control of a Hybrid Stepper Motor Using Fuzzy Logic Controller

Application of resistance energy model to optimising electric power consumption of a belt conveyor system

Design of an Electronic Load Controller for Micro Hydro Power Plant Using Fuzzy-PI Controller