Jan van Deventer

Apparent transducer non-reciprocity in an ultrasonic flow meter.

This paper investigates the effects of non-identical ultrasonic transducers on reciprocity and zero-flow calibration in transit time flow meters. According to the theorem of reciprocity, there should not be any difference between the up- and downstream acoustic times of flight in a zero-flow situation. This would thus eliminate zero-flow estimation drifts. The flow meter is modeled as a one dimensional system with equivalent electrical circuits and simulated with simulation program with integrated circuits emphasis. The work shows that variations between the two transducers cause false estimates of flow and indicate which parameters have the largest influence. It indicates that reciprocity holds only for identical transducers.

Independence and interdependence of systems in district heating

In this paper, a fully operational wireless sensor and actuator network is presented. The network has the ability to control a district heating substation to ensure indoors comfort while minimizing energy waste by maximizing heat extraction from the distribution network. Introduced here is the foundation for a systems of systems approach within a district heating application, where several substations cooperate with the heat production plant. Presented are also the first steps to a service oriented architecture (SOA) where sensor nodes in the district heating network can cooperate with other nodes and systems, for example a ventilation control network.

Emerging energy management standards and technologies — Challenges and application prospects

The continuously rising costs and the environmental impact of energy generation, transmission and consumption are a major concern for governments, industry and society alike. Among research in renewable energy sources as well as in energy efficiency of buildings, electrical appliances, vehicles etc., a considerable amount of attention has been devoted to effective energy management. In this paper, we present a survey on emerging energy management standards with focus on enabling application layer Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) that are a central part of these standards. The presented work includes an analysis on the challenges, future trends, security and application prospects of energy management standards. As part of the survey, the emerging Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) version 2.0 and Smart Energy Profile (SEP) version 2.0 were identified as the most promising and complete solutions. The presented survey provides an important insight on the future developments in the area of energy management protocols and highlights a number of key ICT solutions and challenges.

Enabling IoT automation using local clouds

Various forms of cloud computing principles and technologies are becoming important recently. This paper addresses cloud computing for automation and control applications. Its argued that the open Internet cloud idea has such limitations that its not appropriate for automation. Since automation is physically and geographically local, it is inevitable to introduce the concept of local automation clouds. Its here proposed that local automation clouds should be self contained an be able to execute the intended automation functionalities without any external resources. Thus providing a fence at the rim of the local cloud preventing any inbound or outbound communication. Such a local cloud provides possibilities to address key requirements of both todays and future automation solutions. Adding mechanisms for secure inter-cloud administration and data tranfere enables local automation cloud to meet IoT automation system requirements as: 1) Interoperability of a wide range of IoT and legacy devices 2) Automation requirement on latency guarantee/prediction for communication and control computations. 3) Scalability of automation systems enabling very large integrated automation systems 4) Security and related safety of automation systems 5) Ease of application engineering 6) Multi stakeholder integration and operations agility. How these requirements can be met in such a local automation cloud is discussed with references to proposed solutions. The local automation cloud concept is further verified for a compartment climate control application. The control application included an IoT controller, four IoT sensors and actuators, and a physical layer communication gateway. The gateway acted as host for local cloud core functionalities. The climate control application has successfully been implemented using the open source Arrowhead Framework and its supports for design and implementation of self contained local automation clouds.

A Distributed Engine Management System for Formula SAE

In this paper a distributed system for engine management is presented. The system is in use on the 2006 and 2005 Formula SAE cars from Lulea University of Technology. The purpose of building such a ...

Wireless infrastructure in a district heating substation

A new wireless sensor and actuator network architecture for a district heating substation is presented. The implementation allows for new control algorithms to save substancial amounts of energy and therefore reduce waste and indirectly CO2 emissions. The wireless network uses TCP/IP all the way to the sensor level, which can enable a standardized Service Oriented Architecture and the possibility to upgrade software of each node remotely over the Internet. New diagnostic services are also available to improve service and maintenance.

Detection of, and compensation for error inducing thin layer deposits on an ultrasonic densitometer for liquids

A pulse echo ultrasonic densitometer can measure the acoustic impedance of a liquid by listening to the echo of an acoustic pulse reflected from the densitometer probe and liquid interface. The den ...

Orchestration of Arrowhead services using IEC 61499: Distributed automation case study

This paper presents a novel approach to automation of flexible manufacturing systems with mechatronic intelligence and distributed control. The mechatronic intelligence layer is implemented using a combination of wireless sensor/actuator networks with service-oriented architecture, where services are located at the device level, as well as in local and global Clouds following the Arrowhead framework.

Protocol interoperability of OPC UA in service oriented architectures

Industrial Internet of Things covers all aspects of networked intelligent manufacturing systems. This means covering a wide array of application domains and user requirements. In such scenarios it is not feasible to define a single protocol for all situations. Hence, a multi-protocol approach is required. OPC UA has strong backing from Industry 4.0 as the protocol for the Industrial Internet of Things. Interoperability of OPC UA has been investigated in the context of migration from legacy and with protocols such as DPWS. Additionally HTTP and CoAP have been investigated as possible transport mediums. However, OPC UA interoperability has not been investigated within a multi-protocol settings and no generic protocol translation exists. This paper proposes an OPC UA translator following the service translator model proposed in the Arrowhead project. Utilizing a mapping to intermediate format, it can be used along side CoAP, HTTP and MQTT protocols.

Concepts and architecture for a thumb-sized smart IoT ultrasound measurement system

This paper presents the technology concepts for a “thumb”-sized self-contained ultrasonic IoT measurement system. An overall architecture is proposed, and key elements are discussed with solutions using existing technology, thus arguing that realization is possible with the current technology.