Service dAutomatique et dAnalyse des Systmes

Department of Control Engineering and System Analysis

List of Final Year Thesis proposals for 2014-2015

Design and development of a demonstrator for a wind turbine condition monitoring system
(possibility of internship at Pepite & 2 students) .................................................................................... 2
Power System Dynamic Model Update by Moving Horizon Estimators (possibility of internship at Elia)
................................................................................................................................................................. 4
Early fault detection with application to power plants (possibility of internship at Laborelec) ............. 6
Fault tolerant control of wind turbine .................................................................................................... 7
Control of a force-feedback teleoperated palpation device for minimally invasive thoracic surgery.... 8
Digital control of a self-erecting double inverted pendulum .................................................................. 9
Teleoperation Control of a Quadcopter UAV ........................................................................................ 10
Control of an Airship for Indoor Patrolling ............................................................................................ 11

Design and development of a demonstrator for a wind turbine

condition monitoring system (possibility of internship at Pepite & 2
students)
Contact persons
Laurent Rakoto (Laurent.Rakoto@ulb.ac.be, 02-650.48.22)
Laurent Catoire (Laurent.Catoire@ulb.ac.be, 02-650.26.85)
Michel Kinnaert (Michel.Kinnaert@ulb.ac.be, 02-650.22.87)

Context
A condition monitoring system aims at early detection and localization of malfunctions within the
different components of a wind turbine. An early warning allows one to perform maintenance
operations in due time and during low wind periods in order to avoid production losses. Such a
condition monitoring system is presently under development within the POWER project (Walloon
region). To validate this system, one uses both actual data recorded on wind farms in Europe, as well
as fake data generated by a wind turbine simulator. It is indeed for the moment not possible to
obtain well documented data for the different faulty modes, hence the need to resort to a simulator.

Objective of the master theses

The objective is to develop a demonstration platform made of two software tools running on two
PCs interacting with each other. The first PC should run a simulator of wind turbine able to generate
fake SCADA data in normal and faulty operating modes. The second PC should run the condition
monitoring system able to process on-line the fake data and issue a diagnosis on the state of health
of the different wind turbine components (sensors, actuators, generator, ). The study and
development of the simulator is the object of one master thesis, while the study and development of
the condition monitoring system is the object of the second master thesis. In both cases, a series of
modules are already available. The remaining tasks are detailed next.

Simulator
A wind turbine simulator based on the FAST/AERODYN software developed by the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL, USA) is available. Yet this software is lacking the following
features:
- the model of the generator is a simple one so that the behaviour of the turbine upon occurrence of
faults in the power network (voltage sag for instance) cannot be reproduced properly;
- the yaw actuator and control loop are not included, and thus the transient upon wind direction
changes cannot be reproduced;
- the simulator is not user friendly.
The aim of the thesis is thus to develop a user friendly wind turbine simulator equipped with the
additional features indicated above.

Condition monitoring system

Different methods have been developed for individual sensor monitoring, redundant sensor
monitoring, pitch actuator monitoring and global wind turbine performance monitoring, and they
have been validated independently. To complete this work, the following work is required:
- the interplay between the different software modules implementing the above mentioned methods
should be studied;
- how best to group the outputs of the different modules to end up with a global diagnostic solution
is also an open issue;
- on-line implementation has only been considered for some of the methods.
The aim of the second master thesis is thus to design and validate, on the basis of fake data and
actual SCADA data, a library of easily configurable software modules suitable for the implementation
of an on-line condition monitoring system. The MATLAB/SIMULINK environment will be used for the
software development. The library will be exploited to design a demonstrator of wind turbine
condition monitoring adapted to the simulator developed within the first master thesis.

Requested skills
Control engineering, modelling, programming in the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment.

Power System Dynamic Model Update by Moving Horizon Estimators

(possibility of internship at Elia)
Contact persons
Michel Kinnaert : Michel.Kinnaert@ulb.ac.be, 02-650.22.87
Jonathan Sprooten : Jonathan.Sprooten@elia.be

Context
One of the main missions of each Transmission System Operator is to ensure security of supply of the
power system. In order to reach this goal the power system is modeled. Dynamic models are used to
virtually place the power system in critical situations and then to estimate the stability of this power
system in case of short-circuits, forecast error of renewable generation or load and in case of sudden
failure of lines or generation. Of course, all these simulation tests are useful only if they correctly
represent the reality. However, the models used for the dynamic stability assessment contain
uncertain parameters, as they are not necessarily correctly updated upon power plant revamping
(and notably controller retuning). Therefore, in order to improve the reliability of the simulations
used to assess stability, it would be useful to update the model parameters on the basis of the
available measurements. Such models are typically made of a combination of linear systems and
saturation nonlinearities associated to the physical limitations of the actuators, and they contain
many parameters. The parameter update should thus focus on the most uncertain parameters and
on the parameters which are the most sensitive to the available measurements.
Moving Horizon Estimators (MHE) offer an attractive way to deal with state and parameter
estimation for the considered class of systems, while exploiting at best the information available in
the data. Indeed, they allow one to take into account the saturation nonlinearities, while using a
numerically efficient approach to determine the optimal model parameters. Different options exist
among MHE, notably regarding the selection of the cost function optimized to determine the state
and parameter estimates. Hence the aim of the work is to examine what form of MHE is the most
suitable for the considered application and to validate the proposed solution through a case study.
A first MFE has already proved that this approach is efficient to solve such a problem. This part of the
work will be dedicated to the identification of the most adequate group of
measurements/observable parameters/network even as well. This part of the work will also update
the existing model in order to match existing power plant model.

Description of the work:

The following phases can be considered
1. Update of the bibliographical study of dynamic network models and moving horizon estimators
(MHE). A previous MFE can be used as a basis for this step.
2. Extension of the previously obtained results on observer based parameter estimation for power
plant, including MHE. This involves using more complex models like standard power plant models
and studying the sensitivity of those models w.r.t. experimental data.
3. Determination of systematic guidelines to adjust the design parameters of the MHE for the
considered application
4. Generalization of the approach to different standard power plant models

Requested skills

Power system modeling, parameter estimation and numerical optimization, programming in the
MATLAB/SIMULINK environment.

Early fault detection with application to power plants (possibility of

internship at Laborelec)
Contact persons
Michel Kinnaert : Michel.Kinnaert@ulb.ac.be, 02-650.22.87
Xavier Jaspar , LABORELEC

Context
Early fault detection aims at processing data recorded on a plant in order to determine as early as
possible a malfunction. To achieve this goal normal signal deviations due to operating point changes
and disturbances must be filtered out in order to exhibit fault indicators. Such indicators allows one
to follow the state of health of the plant and plan maintenance operations in due time. This is the
so-called predictive maintenance approach.

Objective
The aim of the internship is to make a state of the art on the early fault detection tools available on
the market.

Master thesis
The context of the thesis is the same as the internship. The objective is to study and compare databased fault detection methods (namely methods that do not explicitly require a mathematical model
of the supervised process). The most promising methods will be implemented in the
MATLAB/SIMULINK environment and they will be validated on power plant data provided by
LABORELEC. The aim is notably to get a better understanding of the methods behind a commercial
software tool presently used in some power plants.

Requested skills
Signal processing, control engineering, programming with MATLAB/SIMULINK

Fault tolerant control of wind turbine

Contact persons
Laurent Rakoto (Laurent.Rakoto@ulb.ac.be, 02-650.48.22)
Laurent Catoire (Laurent.Catoire@ulb.ac.be, 02-650.26.85)
Michel Kinnaert (Michel.Kinnaert@ulb.ac.be, 02-650.22.87)

Context of the work

Mitigating fatigue load and extreme mechanical loads in wind turbines is of paramount importance in
order to reduce maintenance costs. Previous work has shown that Individual pitch control allows
one to reduce fatigue load. Yet extreme mechanical loads are observed upon occurrence of faults in
the network that induce abrupt turbine disconnection. These appear to be very damaging to the
different components. The aim of this project is to study how to handle such disconnections at best
and to investigate whether individual pitch control may help softening the high transient
mechanical load.

Work to be done
-

Bibliographical study (mechanical load control, wind turbine simulation with a view to
investigation of network faults, );
Adaptation of the available wind turbine simulator to account for possible faults in the power
grid;
Quantification of the mechanical load under various fault scenarios;
Development and validation, through simulation, of control schemes for load reduction.

Requested skills
Control engineering, modelling of power systems, programming in the MATLAB/SIMULINK
environment.

Control of a force-feedback teleoperated palpation device for

minimally invasive thoracic surgery
Contact persons
Laurent Catoire (Laurent.Catoire@ulb.ac.be, 02-650.26.85)
Michel Kinnaert (Michel.Kinnaert@ulb.ac.be, 02-650.22.87)
Matteo Cappello, Hpital Erasme

Context of the work

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) consists in operating through small incisions in which a camera and
the surgical tools are inserted. This approach allows performing many interventions with reduced
trauma for the patient. One of these is the ablation of peripheral pulmonary nodules. Nevertheless,
the means for detecting nodules during MIS are limited. In fact, because of the lack of direct contact,
the surgeon cannot palpate the lung to find invisible lesions, as he would do in classical open surgery.
As a result, only clearly visible nodules can be treated by MIS presently.
One of the projects of the department consists in developing a teleoperated force-feedback
palpation device in order to extend the possibilities of MIS in the thoracic field. This instrument,
depicted on figure 1, is made of a master device, manipulated by the surgeon, and a miniaturized
slave device which is in contact with the lung and reproduces the task imposed by the master.
Adequate control laws between these two parts should allow restoring the operators haptic
sensation. In other words, the device permits the surgeon to feel the lung, as if he was actually
touching it.

Description of the work

The student is asked to design teleoperation control laws suitable for the palpation task. These
control laws will be validated through a simulation and then implemented on the existing device. The
palpation will be performed on a mock-up reproducing a human lung.
Performance criteria have to be defined and experiments have to be designed in order to compare
several controllers. The performance of surgeons when using the device will then be evaluated.
Finally, based on the surgeons feedback, the student will have to choose the most efficient
controller.

Figure: CAD model of the palpation device

Requested skills
Control engineering, medical background, programming in MATLAB/SIMULINK and LABVIEW
environment, experimental skills.

Digital control of a self-erecting double inverted pendulum

Contact persons
Laurent Catoire (laurent.catoire@ulb.ac.be)
Michel Kinnaert (michel.kinnaert@ulb.ac.be)

Description
The double inverted pendulum of our laboratory is composed of a screw driven cart on which the
pendulum is connected. The cart position is controlled by a direct current motor. A simplified
scheme of the process is the following:

double
pendulum

cart

screw

DC motor

Different sensors are available to measure: the position of the cart and the angles of the two
pendulum poles.
The control objective is to take the pendulum from its stable position to the upright position by
moving the cart.

Phases of the project

Study of the process, familiarization with the existing simulator, validation of its parameters.
Bibliographical study on inverted pendulum control
Pendulum sizing (length of the poles)
Design of different control laws
Validation and comparison of the control laws in simulation
Validation on the real process.

Teleoperation Control of a Quadcopter UAV

Contact persons
Marco Nicotra (mnicotra@ulb.ac.be, 02-650.48.23)
Emanuele Garone (egarone@ulb.ac.be, 02-650.26.86)

Context of the work

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, are aircrafts without an onboard pilot.
Due to their small size, high speed and limited cost, these aerial robots are attracting an increasingly
growing attention for a large variety of applications (e.g. filming, search and rescue, high-speed
delivery).

Figure: The Omega3 haptic interface will be used to assist the pilot when navigating in a confined environment.

Although these systems are relatively easy to pilot in open spaces, inexperienced operators find it
difficult to avoid obstacle collision when navigating in confined environments. The objective of this
master thesis is to overcome this problem by making the user feel the distance between the UAV
and its surroundings. This will be done by controlling the UAV with a 3D joystick that becomes more
rigid in the directions in which there is a collision risk.

Description of the work

The student is asked to design teleoperation control laws suitable for navigating safely in a confined
environment. These control laws will be validated by using an Omega3 haptic interface to pilot a
virtual UAV inside a simulated environment. The student may then demonstrate the effectiveness of
his work by navigating a nano-UAV in a real maze.

Requested skills
Basic knowledge in control theory, programming skills in MATLAB/SIMULINK.

Control of an Airship for Indoor Patrolling

Contact persons
Marco Nicotra (mnicotra@ulb.ac.be, 02-650.48.23)
Emanuele Garone (egarone@ulb.ac.be, 02-650.26.86)

Context of the work

Airships (such as zeppelins and blimps) are lighter-than-air vehicles that remain airborne due to
Archimedes principle. The high energy efficiency of these vehicles allows them to be used for timeconsuming operations such as the automatic patrolling of large indoor environments.

Figure: The Raidentech Remote Control blimp will be used to patrol an indoor setting.

Description of the work

In this master multidisciplinary thesis, the student will be asked to perform all the necessary steps to
obtain an autonomous blimp. This includes the following aspects:
Control: The control layer will be responsible of obtaining an airship that follows a desired trajectory.
In this context, the student will be asked to perform the reverse engineering of a commercial blimp
so as to obtain the transfer function of the system and develop a control law.
Navigation: The navigation layer is charged with generating suitable trajectories for the airship based
on the visual information provided by an on-board camera. Simple tasks will include travelling
between markers or following a moving feature.
Depending on the time remaining and on the students interests, possible extensions include:
- Intruder Detection (for the automatic patrolling of warehouses)
- Augmented Reality (for the virtual touring of inaccessible locations)
- Digital Mapping (for the exploration of unknown environments)

Requested skills
Basic knowledge in control theory, programming skills in C++.