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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Virtual Sensor Middleware: Managing Iot Data For The Fog-Cloud Platform, Fadi Almahamid, Hanan Lutfiyya, Katarina Grolinger Oct 2022

Virtual Sensor Middleware: Managing Iot Data For The Fog-Cloud Platform, Fadi Almahamid, Hanan Lutfiyya, Katarina Grolinger

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

This paper introduces the Virtual Sensor Middleware (VSM), which facilitates distributed sensor data processing on multiple fog nodes. VSM uses a Virtual Sensor as the core component of the middleware. The virtual sensor concept is redesigned to support functionality beyond sensor/device virtualization, such as deploying a set of virtual sensors to represent an IoT application and distributed sensor data processing across multiple fog nodes. Furthermore, the virtual sensor deals with the heterogeneous nature of IoT devices and the various communication protocols using different adapters to communicate with the IoT devices and the underlying protocol. VSM uses the publish-subscribe design pattern …


Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering With Dynamic Time Warping For Household Load Curve Clustering, Fadi Almahamid, Katarina Grolinger Oct 2022

Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering With Dynamic Time Warping For Household Load Curve Clustering, Fadi Almahamid, Katarina Grolinger

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Energy companies often implement various demand response (DR) programs to better match electricity demand and supply by offering the consumers incentives to reduce their demand during critical periods. Classifying clients according to their consumption patterns enables targeting specific groups of consumers for DR. Traditional clustering algorithms use standard distance measurement to find the distance between two points. The results produced by clustering algorithms such as K-means, K-medoids, and Gaussian Mixture Models depend on the clustering parameters or initial clusters. In contrast, our methodology uses a shape-based approach that combines Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC) with Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) to classify …


Optimal Inverter And Wire Selection For Solar Photovoltaic Fencing Applications, Koami Soulemane Hayibo, Joshua M. Pearce Sep 2022

Optimal Inverter And Wire Selection For Solar Photovoltaic Fencing Applications, Koami Soulemane Hayibo, Joshua M. Pearce

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Despite the benefits and the economic advantages of agrivoltaics, capital costs limit deployment velocity. One recent potential solution to this challenge is to radically reduce the cost of racking materials by using existing farm fencing as vertical photovoltaic (PV) racking. This type of fenced-based PV system is inherently electrically challenging because of the relatively long distances between individual modules that are not present in more densely packed conventional solar PV farms. This study provides practical insights for inverter selection and wire sizing optimization for fence-based agrivoltaic systems. Numerical simulation sensitivities on the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) were performed for …


Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Navigation Using Reinforcement Learning: A Systematic Review, Fadi Almahamid, Katarina Grolinger Aug 2022

Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Navigation Using Reinforcement Learning: A Systematic Review, Fadi Almahamid, Katarina Grolinger

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

There is an increasing demand for using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), known as drones, in different applications such as packages delivery, traffic monitoring, search and rescue operations, and military combat engagements. In all of these applications, the UAV is used to navigate the environment autonomously --- without human interaction, perform specific tasks and avoid obstacles. Autonomous UAV navigation is commonly accomplished using Reinforcement Learning (RL), where agents act as experts in a domain to navigate the environment while avoiding obstacles. Understanding the navigation environment and algorithmic limitations plays an essential role in choosing the appropriate RL algorithm to solve the …


The Applications Of Blockchain Technologies To Electricity Markets, David Bowker, Vladislav Berezovsky, Marko Vukobratović, Santosh Jain, Subhendu Mukherjee, Fazel Mohammadi, Hannes Agabus Aug 2022

The Applications Of Blockchain Technologies To Electricity Markets, David Bowker, Vladislav Berezovsky, Marko Vukobratović, Santosh Jain, Subhendu Mukherjee, Fazel Mohammadi, Hannes Agabus

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

This paper is a summary of the CIGRE Technical Brochure 824 The Role of Blockchain Technologies in Power Markets [17]. The work of the contributors to the Technical Brochure is recognised. It is proposed to follow up this work in a new working group with a more in-depth look at the potential applications for blockchain in the area of energy trading.


Monofacial Vs Bifacial Solar Photovoltaic Systems In Snowy Environments, Koami Soulemane Hayibo, Aliaksei Petsiuk, Pierce Mayville, Laura Brown, Joshua M. Pearce Jun 2022

Monofacial Vs Bifacial Solar Photovoltaic Systems In Snowy Environments, Koami Soulemane Hayibo, Aliaksei Petsiuk, Pierce Mayville, Laura Brown, Joshua M. Pearce

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

There has been a recent surge in interest in the more accurate snow loss estimates for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems as large-scale deployments move into northern latitudes. Preliminary results show bifacial modules may clear snow faster than monofacial PV. This study analyzes snow losses on these two types of systems using empirical hourly data including energy, solar irradiation and albedo, and open-source image processing methods from images of the arrays in a northern environment in the winter. Projection transformations based on reference anchor points and snowless ground truth images provide reliable masking and optical distortion correction with fixed surveillance cameras. …


Resilient Consensus Control Design For Dc Microgrids Against False Data Injection Attacks Using A Distributed Bank Of Sliding Mode Observers, Yousof Barzegari, Jafar Zarei, Roozbeh Razavi-Far, Mehrdad Saif, Vasile Palade Apr 2022

Resilient Consensus Control Design For Dc Microgrids Against False Data Injection Attacks Using A Distributed Bank Of Sliding Mode Observers, Yousof Barzegari, Jafar Zarei, Roozbeh Razavi-Far, Mehrdad Saif, Vasile Palade

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

This paper investigates the problem of false data injection attack (FDIA) detection in microgrids. The grid under study is a DC microgrid with distributed boost converters, where the false data are injected into the voltage data so as to investigate the effect of attacks. The proposed algorithm uses a bank of sliding mode observers that estimates the states of the neighbor agents. Each agent estimates the neighboring states and, according to the estimation and communication data, the detection mechanism reveals the presence of FDIA. The proposed control scheme provides resiliency to the system by replacing the conventional consensus rule with …


Foam-Based Floatovoltaics: A Potential Solution To Disappearing Terminal Natural Lakes, Koami Soulemane Hayibo, Joshua M. Pearce Apr 2022

Foam-Based Floatovoltaics: A Potential Solution To Disappearing Terminal Natural Lakes, Koami Soulemane Hayibo, Joshua M. Pearce

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Terminal lakes are disappearing worldwide because of direct and indirect human activities. Floating photovoltaics (FPV) are a synergistic system with increased energy output because of water cooling, while the FPV reduces water evaporation. This study explores how low-cost foam-based floatovoltaic systems can mitigate the disappearance of natural lakes. A case study is performed on 10%–50% FPV coverage of terminal and disappearing Walker Lake. Water conservation is investigated with a modified Penman-Monteith evapotranspiration method and energy generation is calculated with an operating temperature model experimentally determined from foam-based FPV. Results show FPV saves 52,000,000 m3/year of water and US$6,000,000 at 50% …


Multi-Agent Based Protection Scheme Using Current-Only Directional Overcurrent Relays For Looped/Meshed Distribution Systems, Mohammad Ali Ataei, Mohsen Gitizadeh, Matti Lehtonen, Roozbeh Razavi-Far Apr 2022

Multi-Agent Based Protection Scheme Using Current-Only Directional Overcurrent Relays For Looped/Meshed Distribution Systems, Mohammad Ali Ataei, Mohsen Gitizadeh, Matti Lehtonen, Roozbeh Razavi-Far

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

The complexity of the design of the protection system using directional over current relays, for modern power distribution systems has been increased due to the looped/meshed operation and the penetration of distributed generations. Finding a reliable and efficient protection scheme that can be easily implemented in these distribution systems is a major challenge. An efficient solution could be the use of artificial intelligent-based multi-agent systems. This paper proposes a novel distributed intelligent based multi-agent protection scheme, which makes use of current-only directional over current relays as agents for detecting and locating faults and isolating faulty areas (lines/busbars) in the distribution …


Case Study Of Tv Spectrum Sensing Model Based On Machine Learning Techniques, Abdalaziz Mohammad, Faroq Ali Awin, Esam Abdel-Raheem Mar 2022

Case Study Of Tv Spectrum Sensing Model Based On Machine Learning Techniques, Abdalaziz Mohammad, Faroq Ali Awin, Esam Abdel-Raheem

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Spectrum sensing is an essential component in cognitive radios (CR). Machine learning (ML) algorithms are powerful techniques for designing a promising spectrum sensing model. In this work, the supervised ML algorithms, support vector machine (SVM), k-nearest neighbor (kNN), and decision tree (DT) are applied to detect the existence of primary users (PU) over the TV band. Moreover, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is incorporated to speed up the learning of the classifiers. Furthermore, the ensemble classification-based approach is employed to enhance the classifier predictivity and performance. Simulation results have shown that the highest performance is achieved by the ensemble classifier. …


The Greenest Solar Power? Life Cycle Assessment Of Foam-Based Flexible Floatovoltaics, Koami Soulemane Hayibo, Pierce Mayville, Joshua M. Pearce Mar 2022

The Greenest Solar Power? Life Cycle Assessment Of Foam-Based Flexible Floatovoltaics, Koami Soulemane Hayibo, Pierce Mayville, Joshua M. Pearce

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

This study presents a life cycle analysis (LCA) of a 10 MW foam-based floatovoltaics (FPV) plant installed on Lake Mead, Nevada, U.S. A material inventory of the flexible crystalline silicon (c-Si)-based module involved massing and determination of material composition of the module's encapsulation layers with ATR/FTR spectroscopy and electron microscopy. The LCA was performed using SimaPro and the results were interpreted in terms of cumulative energy demands, energy payback time, global warming potential, GHG emissions, and water footprint including negative values for reduced evaporation. A sensitivity analysis was performed on the lifetime of the modules and the foam-based racking. The …


Operating Room Scheduling Optimization Based On A Fuzzy Uncertainty Approach And Metaheuristic Algorithms, P Maghzi, M Mohammadi, S H.R Pasandideh, B Naderi Feb 2022

Operating Room Scheduling Optimization Based On A Fuzzy Uncertainty Approach And Metaheuristic Algorithms, P Maghzi, M Mohammadi, S H.R Pasandideh, B Naderi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Today, planning and scheduling problems are the most significant issues in the world and make a great impact on improving organizational productivity and serving systems such as medical and healthcare providers. Since operating room planning is a major problem in healthcare organizations, the optimization of medical staff and equipment plays an essential role. Thus, this study presents a multi-objective mathematical model with a new categorization (preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative) to minimize operating room scheduling and the risk of using equipment. Time constraints in healthcare systems and medical equipment limited capacity are the most significant considered limitation in the present study. …


A New Approach For Grasp Quality Calculation Using Continuous Boundary Formulation Of Grasp Wrench Space, Shuwei Qiu, Mehrdad Kermani Ph.D., P.Eng. Feb 2022

A New Approach For Grasp Quality Calculation Using Continuous Boundary Formulation Of Grasp Wrench Space, Shuwei Qiu, Mehrdad Kermani Ph.D., P.Eng.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

In this paper, we aim to use a continuous formulation to efficiently calculate the well-known wrench-based grasp metric proposed by Ferrari and Canny which is the minimum distance from the wrench space origin to the boundary of the grasp wrench space. Considering the L∞" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: normal; font-size: 16.200000762939453px; word-spacing: normal; word-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border: 0px; position: relative;"> metric and the nonlinear friction cone model, the challenge of calculating this metric is to determine the boundary of the grasp …