Search results for " control systems"
showing 10 items of 63 documents
Challenges and Confusions in Learning Version Control with Git
2014
Scholars agree on the importance of incorporating use of version control systems (VCSs) into computing curricula, so as to be able to prepare students for today’s distributed and collaborative work places. One of the present-day distributed version control systems (DVCSs) is Git, the system we have used on several courses. In this paper, we report on the challenges for learning and using the system based on a survey data collected from a project-based course and our own teaching experiences during several different kinds of computing courses. The results of this analysis are discussed and recommendations are made. peerReviewed
Environmental sustainability in non-residential buildings by automating and optimization LENI index
2018
Directive 2002/91 / EC as amended by 2010/31 / EU introduces procedures for energy certification aimed to determine, through the numerical indicators, the overall energy efficiency of the buildings, but notes the thermal and electric consumption. Often, the power consumption is incorrectly underestimated, this consumption would to be considered with great attention. In fact, compared to a committed capacity of less, compared to thermal plants, have times of utilization often far higher, leading to energy requirements to levels similar or even higher than those thermal, being the conversion factor of the electrical energy increasingly high. Leaving aside the procedural scheme energy certific…
Sequential design of multioverlapping controllers for structural vibration control of tall buildings under seismic excitation
2012
In this article, a computationally effective strategy to obtain multioverlapping controllers via the inclusion principle is applied to design a state-feedback multioverlapping linear-quadratic regulator controller for a 20-story building. The proposed semidecentralized controller only requires state information of neighboring stories to compute the corresponding control actions. This particular information exchange configuration allows introducing a dramatic reduction in the transmission range required for a wireless implementation of the communications system. More specifically, just a one-story transmission range is required by the proposed multioverlapping controller, while a full-buildi…
DSC: software tool for simulation-based design of control strategies applied to wastewater treatment plants.
2011
This paper presents a computer tool called DSC (Simulation based Controllers Design) that enables an easy design of control systems and strategies applied to wastewater treatment plants. Although the control systems are developed and evaluated by simulation, this tool aims to facilitate the direct implementation of the designed control system to the PC of the full-scale WWTP (wastewater treatment plants). The designed control system can be programmed in a dedicated control application and can be connected to either the simulation software or the SCADA of the plant. To this end, the developed DSC incorporates an OPC server (OLE for process control) which facilitates an open-standard communic…
A polynomial algorithm solving a special class of hybrid optimal control problems
2006
Hybrid optimal control problems are, in general, difficult to solve. A current research goal is to isolate those problems that lead to tractable solutions [5]. In this paper, we identify a special class of hybrid optimal control problems which are easy to solve. We do this by using a paradigm borrowed from the Operations Research field. As main result, we present a solution algorithm that converges to the exact solution in polynomial time. Our approach consists in approximating the hybrid optimal control problem via an integer-linear programming reformulation. The integer-linear programming problem is a Set-covering one with a totally unimodular constraint matrix and therefore solving the S…
Feasibility issues in static output-feedback controller design with application to structural vibration control
2014
Recent results in output-feedback controller design make possible an efficient computation of static output-feedback controllers by solving a single-step LMI optimization problem. This new design strategy is based on a simple transformation of variables, and it has been applied in the field of vibration control of large structures with positive results. There are, however, some feasibility problems that can compromise the effectiveness and applicability of the new approach. In this paper, we present some relevant properties of the variable transformations that allow devising an effective procedure to deal with these feasibility issues. The proposed procedure is applied in designing a static…
Vibration control for adjacent structures using local state information
2014
In this paper, a novel strategy for structural vibration control of multi-structure systems is presented. This strategy pays particular attention to mitigating negative interstructure interactions. Moreover, it is based on recent advances in static output–feedback control, which make possible the efficient computation of decentralized velocity-feedback controllers by solving a single-step optimization problem with Linear Matrix Inequality constraints. To illustrate the main ideas, a local velocity-feedback energy-to-peak controller is designed for the seismic protection of a two-building system. This controller is remarkably effective and extremely simple. Moreover, it can also be implement…
Passive-damping design for vibration control of large structures
2013
In this work, a systematic strategy to design passive damping systems for structural vibration control is presented. The proposed design methodology is based on the equivalence between decentralized static velocity-feedback controllers and passive damping systems. By using recent developments in static output-feedback control, the design of passivedamping systems can be formulated as a single optimization problem with Linear Matrix Inequality constraints. Moreover, this optimization problem can be efficiently solved with standard numerical tools, even for large dimension systems. Due to its computational effectiveness, the proposed methodology can be applied to the design of passive damping…
Lighting control systems: Factors affecting energy savings' evaluation
2015
Abstract The use of automated lighting control systems allows to reduce lighting costs and to achieve significant energy savings. The energy performances of controls are affected by many factors, the impact of which is very difficult to account for during the design process. The goal of this paper is to describe the factors that influence the control systems’ energy performances, to analyze how the currently available calculation tools take them into account and finally to propose a simple method to adjust results obtained from the simulation software.
Development of a high-accuracy PC-based wattmeter with commercial data acquisition boards
2011
This paper presents the development of a high accuracy sampling wattmeter, which makes use of two commercial data acquisition boards (DAQs) connected to a common personal computer. Commercial software is also used for data processing and implementation of the virtual instrument. The set up of the PC-based wattmeter is described and a preliminary evaluation of its metrological performances is made by means of two series of experimental tests, which were carried out with an electric power standard and a high performance multifunction calibrator. © 2011 IEEE.