Engineering Commons^™

Torch Mounted Wire Nipper, Steven D. Patrick, Matt Montgomery, Ben Rouse, Garrett D. Foust

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

An Optimization Approach Based On The Interior-Point Methodology For The Tertiary Control Of Modernized Microgrids, Isaiah D. Woodruff

Honors College Theses

With the rise in popularity of the modernized microgrids (MMGs), the addition of a controller to maximize economic efficiency while considering environmental impact is crucial. Tertiary control is at the highest control level, considering economic concerns related to the optimal operation of the microgrid and using a sampling time from minutes to hours; tertiary controls manage the flow of power between the microgrid and the connected grid. In MMGs' tertiary controls, the use of optimization algorithms to minimize an objective function with equality and inequality constraints allows for powerful control over the system. In this paper, the interior-point algorithm is …

Side Channel Anomaly Detection In Industrial Control Systems Using Physical Characteristics Of End Devices, Ryan D. Harris

Theses and Dissertations

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are described by the Department of Homeland Security as systems that are so \vital to the United States that their incapacity or destruction would have a debilitating impact on our physical or economic security." Attacks like Stuxnet show that these systems are vulnerable. The end goal for Stuxnet was to spin centrifuges at a frequency rate outside of normal operation and hide its activity from the ICS operator. This research aims to provide a proof of concept for an anomaly detection system that would be able to detect an attack like Stuxnet by measuring the physical …

Physical Layer Discrimination Of Electronic Control Units Using Wired Signal Distinct Native Attribute (Ws-Dnda), Rahn M. Lassiter

Theses and Dissertations

The Controller Area Network (CAN) bus is a communication system used in automobiles to connect the electronic components required for critical vehicle operations. These components are called Electronic Control Units (ECU) and each one exercises one or more functions within the vehicle. ECUs can provide autonomous safety features and increased comfort to drivers but these advancements may come at the expense of vehicle security. Researchers have shown that the CAN bus can be hacked by compromising authorized ECUs or by physically connecting unauthorized devices to the bus. Physical layer (PHY) device fingerprinting has emerged as one of the accepted approaches …

Active Control Of A Morphing Wing Aircraft And Failure Analysis For System Reliability, Madison J. Montgomery

Theses and Dissertations

A morphing wing aircraft has the ability to increase the efficiency of an aircraft by better optimizing lift and drag characteristics during a flight. A morphing wing UAV was designed and constructed by AFRL/RQVS and required a means of control and method of characterizing the performance of the aircraft through flight testing. This research presents the design and construction of a control system capable of adjusting the morphing wing shape based on pilot commands and current flight status. The control system was tested and improved following a flight test crash utilizing failure mode analysis.

Two-On-One Pursuit With A Non-Zero Capture Radius, Patrick J. Wasz

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, we revisit the "Two Cutters and Fugitive Ship" differential game that was addressed by Isaacs, but move away from point capture. We consider a two-on-one pursuit-evasion differential game with simple motion and pursuers endowed with circular capture sets of radius l > 0. The regions in the state space where only one pursuer effects the capture and the region in the state space where both pursuers cooperatively and isochronously capture the evader are characterized, thus solving the Game of Kind. Concerning the Game of Degree, the algorithm for the synthesis of the optimal state feedback strategies of the …

Safe And Efficient Intelligent Intersection Control Of Autonomous Vehicles, Qiang Lu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we address a problem of safe and efficient intersection crossing traffic management of autonomous and connected ground traffic. Toward this objective, we propose several algorithms to handle different traffic environments. First, an algorithm that is called the Discrete-time occupancies trajectory (DTOT) based Intersection traffic Coordination Algorithm (DICA) is proposed. All vehicles in the system are Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) and capable of wireless Vehicle-to-Intersection communication. The main advantage of DICA is that it enables us to utilize the intersection space more efficiently resulting in less delay for vehicles to cross the intersection. In the proposed framework, …

Radar Detection, Tracking And Identification For Uav Sense And Avoid Applications, Erik George Moore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology have enabled wider access for the general public leading to more stringent flight regulations, such as the "line of sight" restriction, for hobbyists and commercial applications. Improving sensor technology for Sense And Avoid (SAA) systems is currently a major research area in the unmanned vehicle community. This thesis overviews efforts made to advance intelligent algorithms used to detect, track, and identify commercial UAV targets by enabling rapid prototyping of novel radar techniques such as micro-Doppler radar target identification or cognitive radar. To enable empirical radar signal processing evaluations, an S-Band and X-Band frequency …

Nonlinear Controller Design For Uavs With Time-Varying Aerodynamic Uncertainties, Michail G. Michailidis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are here and they are here to stay. Unmanned Aviation has expanded significantly in recent years and research and development in the field of navigation and control have advanced beyond expectations. UAVs are currently being used for defense programs around the world but the range of applications is expected to grow in the near future, with civilian applications such as environmental and aerial monitoring, aerial surveillance and homeland security being some representative examples. Conventional and commercially available small-scale UAVs have limited utilization and applicability to executing specific short-duration missions because of limitations in size, payload, power …

Operation And Process Control Development For A Pilot-Scale Leaching And Solvent Extraction Circuit Recovering Rare Earth Elements From Coal-Based Sources, Douglas Kweku Addo

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

The US Department of Energy in 2010 has identified several rare earth elements as critical materials to enable clean technologies. As part of ongoing research in REEs (rare earth elements) recovery from coal sources, the University of Kentucky has designed, developed and is demonstrating a ¼ ton/hour pilot-scale processing plant to produce high-grade REEs from coal sources. Due to the need to control critical variables (e.g. pH, tank level, etc.), process control is required. To ensure adequate process control, a study was conducted on leaching and solvent extraction control to evaluate the potential of achieving low-cost REE recovery in addition …

Optimal Power Flow Control Of Networked Dc Microgrids, Eddy H. Trinklein

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The US military is moving toward the electrification of many weapon systems and platforms. Advanced weapon systems such as high energy radar, electro-magnetic kinetic weapons and directed energy pose significant integration challenges due to their pulsed power electrical load profile. Additionally, the weapons platforms, including ships, aircraft, and vehicles can be studied as a mobile microgrids with multiple generation sources, loads, and energy storage. There is also a desire to extend the mission profile and capabilities of these systems. Common goals are to increase fuel efficiency, maintaining system stability, and reduce energy storage size as typically required to enable pulsed …

Estimation And Prediction Of The Human Gait Dynamics For The Control Of An Ankle-Foot Prosthesis, Guilherme Aramizo Ribeiro

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

With the growing population of amputees, powered prostheses can be a solution to improve the quality of life for many people. Powered ankle-foot prostheses can be made to behave similar to the lost limb via controllers that emulate the mechanical impedance of the human ankle. Therefore, the understanding of human ankle dynamics is of major significance. First, this work reports the modulation of the mechanical impedance via two mechanisms: the co-contraction of the calf muscles and a change of mean ankle torque and angle. Then, the mechanical impedance of the ankle was determined, for the first time, as a multivariable …

Modeling And Control Of Maximum Pressure Rise Rate In Rcci Engines, Aditya Basina

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Low Temperature Combustion (LTC) is a combustion strategy that burns fuel at lower temperatures and leaner mixtures in order to achieve high efficiency and near zero NOx emissions. Since the combustion happens at lower temperatures it inhibits the formation of NOx and soot emissions. One such strategy is Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI). One characteristic of RCCI combustion and LTC com- bustion in general is short burn durations which leads to high Pressure Rise Rates (PRR). This limits the operation of these engines to lower loads as at high loads, the Maximum Pressure Rise Rate (MPRR) hinders the use of …

Immunity-Based Framework For Autonomous Flight In Gps-Challenged Environment, Mohanad Al Nuaimi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In this research, the artificial immune system (AIS) paradigm is used for the development of a conceptual framework for autonomous flight when vehicle position and velocity are not available from direct sources such as the global navigation satellite systems or external landmarks and systems. The AIS is expected to provide corrections of velocity and position estimations that are only based on the outputs of onboard inertial measurement units (IMU). The AIS comprises sets of artificial memory cells that simulate the function of memory T- and B-cells in the biological immune system of vertebrates. The innate immune system uses information about …

Ict-Enabled Control And Energy Management Of Community Microgrids For Resilient Smart Grid Operation, Mahmoud Saleh

Dissertations and Theses

Our research has focused on developing novel controllers and algorithms to enhance the resilience of the power grid and increase its readiness level against major disturbances.

The U.S. power grid currently encounters two main challenges: (1) the massive and extended blackouts caused by natural disasters, such as hurricane Sandy. These blackouts have raised a national call to explore innovative approaches for enhanced grid resiliency. Scrutinizing how previous blackouts initiated and propagated throughout the power grid, the major reasons are lack of situational awareness, lack of real-time monitoring and control, underdeveloped controllers at both the transmission and distribution levels, and lack …

Single-Degree-Of-Freedom Experiments Demonstrating Electromagnetic Formation Flying For Small Satellite Swarms Using Piecewise-Sinusoidal Controls, Ajin Sunny

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

This thesis presents a decentralized electromagnetic formation flying (EMFF) control method using frequency-multiplexed sinusoidal control signals. We demonstrate the EMFF control approach in open-loop and closed-loop control experiments using a single-degree-of-freedom testbed with an electromagnetic actuation system (EAS). The EAS sense the relative position and velocity between satellites and implement a frequency-multiplexed sinusoidal control signal. We use a laser-rangefinder device to capture the relative position and an ARM-based microcontroller to implement the closed-loop control algorithm. We custom-design and build the EAS that implements the formation control in one dimension. The experimental results in this thesis demonstrate the feasibility of the …

Intelligent Transportation Systems, Hybrid Electric Vehicles, Powertrain Control, Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control, Model Predictive Control, Hadi Kazemi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Information obtainable from Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) provides the possibility of improving the safety and efficiency of vehicles at different levels. In particular, such information has the potential to be utilized for prediction of driving conditions and traffic flow, which allows us to improve the performance of the control systems in different vehicular applications, such as Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) powertrain control and Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC). In the first part of this work, we study the design of an MPC controller for a Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) system, which is an automated application that provides the drivers …

Reinforcement Learning, Intelligent Control And Their Applications In Connected And Autonomous Vehicles, Adedapo O. Odekunle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reinforcement learning (RL) has attracted large attention over the past few years. Recently, we developed a data-driven algorithm to solve predictive cruise control (PCC) and games output regulation problems. This work integrates our recent contributions to the application of RL in game theory, output regulation problems, robust control, small-gain theory and PCC. The algorithm was developed for $H_\infty$ adaptive optimal output regulation of uncertain linear systems, and uncertain partially linear systems to reject disturbance and also force the output of the systems to asymptotically track a reference. In the PCC problem, we determined the reference velocity for each autonomous vehicle …

Application Of Droop Control And Synchronization For Single-Phase Inverters In Ac Microgrid Integration, Shuai Yang

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

With the increasing requirements on environment-friendly and sustainable clean energy [1], people have paid more attention to renewable energy around the world in the past few decades. As a result, power systems have undergone a paradigm shift from centralized generation to distributed generation. Smart grids, which are a combination of power systems and communication networks, were proposed to allow power systems to meet future challenges. In smart grids, especially in AC microgrids, converters play an important role in many areas including microgrid integration, uninterrupted power supply, and flexible alternating current transmission systems. The inverter is a power conversion device [2] …

Energy Optimization And Coordination Frameworks For Smart Homes Considering Incentives From Discomfort And Market Analysis, Priti Paudyal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The electricity demand is increasing with the growing use of electricity-based appliances in today’s world. The residential sector’s electricity consumption share is also increasing. Demand response (DR) is a typical way to schedule consumers’ energy consumption and help utility to reduce the peak load demand. Residential demand management can contribute to reduce peak electric demand, decrease electricity costs, and maintain grid reliability. Though the demand management has benefits to the utility and the consumers, controlling the consumers electricity consumption provides inconvenience to the consumers. The challenge here is to properly address the customers’ inconvenience to encourage them to participate and …

Coordinated Smart Home Thermal And Energy Management System Using A Co-Simulation Framework, Prateek Munankarmi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The increasing demand for electricity especially during the peak hours threaten the grid reliability. Demand response (DR), changing the load pattern of the consumer in response to system conditions, can decrease energy consumption during periods of high wholesale market price and also maintain system reliability. Residential homes consume 38% of the total electric energy in the U.S., making them promising for DR participation. Consumers can be motivated to participate in DR programs by providing incentives (incentive-based DR), or by introducing a time-varying tariff for electricity consumption (price-based DR). A home energy management system (HEMS), an automated system which can alter …

Machine Learning For Load Profile Data Analytics And Short-Term Load Forecasting, Md. Rashedul Haq

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Short-term load forecasting (STLF) is a key issue for the operation and dispatch of day ahead energy market. It is a prerequisite for the economic operation of power systems and the basis of dispatching and making startup-shutdown plans, which plays a key role in the automatic control of power systems. Accurate power load forecasting not only help users choose a more appropriate electricity consumption scheme and reduces a lot of electric cost expenditure but also is conducive to optimizing the resources of power systems. This advantage helps while improving equipment utilization for reducing the production cost and improving the economic …

Effect Of Sensor Errors On Autonomous Steering Control And Application Of Sensor Fusion For Robust Navigation, Shuvodeep Bhattacharjya

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Autonomous steering control is one the most important features in autonomous vehicle navigation. The nature and tuning of the controller decides how well the vehicle follows a defined trajectory. A poorly tuned controller can cause the vehicle to oversteer or understeer at turns leading to deviation from a defined path. However, controller performance also depends on the state–feedback system. If the states used for controller input are noisy or has bias / systematic error, the navigation performance of the vehicle is affected irrespective of the control law and controller tuning. In this report, autonomous steering controller analysis is done for …

Networked Microgrid Optimization And Energy Management, Robert S. Jane

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Military vehicles possess attributes consistent with a microgrid, containing electrical energy generation, storage, government furnished equipment (GFE), and the ability to share these capabilities via interconnection. Many military vehicles have significant energy storage capacity to satisfy silent watch requirements, making them particularly well-suited to share their energy storage capabilities with stationary microgrids for more efficient energy management. Further, the energy generation capacity and the fuel consumption rate of the vehicles are comparable to standard diesel generators, for certain scenarios, the use of the vehicles could result in more efficient operation. Energy management of a microgrid is an open area of …

Online Learning Of The Spatial-Temporal Channel Variation In Underwater Acoustic Communication Networks, Wensheng Sun

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Influenced by environmental conditions, underwater acoustic (UWA) communication channels exhibit spatial and temporal variations, posing significant challenges for UWA networking and applications. This dissertation develops statistical signal processing approaches to model and predict variations of the channel and relevant environmental factors. Firstly, extensive field experiments are conducted in the Great Lakes region. Three types of the freshwater river/lake acoustic channels are characterized in the aspects of statistical channel variations and sound propagation loss, including stationary, mobile and under-ice acoustic channels. Statistical data analysis shows that relative to oceanic channels, freshwater river/lake channels have larger temporal coherence, higher correlation among densely …

Cycle Assist, Tyler Matthews

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The senior engineering design project presented in the paper that succeeds this, outlines the steps taken to design and implement an electronic bicycle that is able to keep a user’s heart-rate in a selected “intensity zone” though the use of an electronic motor and custom control circuitry. My portion of this project was to allow for safe and consistent power delivery to the rest of the electronics. That is to say, I built a battery pack and battery management system (BMS) to safely supply sufficient power to the rest of the electronics that were required for this project. In order …

Dynamic Voltage Rail Audio Amplifier, Evan Von Duhn, Timothy Oshatiouk, Slavisa Tosanovic, Andrew Cantrell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of this project is to create a high-quality, power-efficient audio amplifier. Most modern audio amplifiers use a constant amount of power regardless of the signal that is being amplified. This means that both loud and quiet portions of the audio signal require the same amount of power to amplify. The idea for this high-quality, power-efficient audio amplifier is that the quieter portions of the audio signal can be amplified using less power. This will be achieved by first analyzing the audio signal and controlling the power source based on the signal’s needs. Therefore, louder parts of the audio …

Mathematical Programming Approach For The Design Of Satellite Power Systems, Allen Flath Iii

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Satellite power systems can be understood as islanded dc microgrids supplied by specialized and coordinated solar cell arrays augmented by electrochemical battery systems to handle high-power loads and periods of eclipse. The periodic availability of power, the limited capacity of batteries, and the dependence of all mission service on power consumption create a unique situation in which temporal power and energy scarcity exist. A multi-period model of an orbital satellite power system’s performance over a mission’s duration can be constructed. A modular power system architecture is used to characterize the system’s constraints. Using mathematical programming, an optimization problem can be …