Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
30 High-renewable microgrid for Railway Power Conditioner(RPC)
 Jiakai Lin
Jiebang Xia
Kai Zhang
Yongcan Wang
 Yi Wang design_document4.pdf
final_paper5.pdf
proposal2.pdf
 Lin Qiu
# Team Members:
- Yongcan Wang (Yongcan2)
- Jiebang Xia (jiebang2)
- Kai Zhang (kaiz5)
- Jiakai Lin (jiakail2)

# Problem:
In real life, the external power supply system is in three-phase while the traction network of an electrified railway usually only involves two phases Vdd and GND. If we randomly select two phases out of the three-phase power grid, there will be a mismatch in the power consumption for each power line. We need to come up with an idea to balance the power consumption on each power line.

During the operation of electrified railways, the environment is not stable and small disturbances may exert on the system, which requires our system to have resilience in eliminating those disturbances. For example, the friction between the train and the ground varies in different areas and the train may climb up a ramp sometimes. In order to make the train operate at a uniform velocity, we cannot simply exert unified traction. It's also impossible for the power supply voltage to remain the same and there must exist some small vibration. It's vital to make the train function properly invariant with the outside environment.

# Solution overview:
The overall plan is to connect the three phases of the power grid circularly to the traction network at different sections of the railway. In other words, suppose the three phases are phase a, b, and c and we choose phase (a, b), phase (b, c), and phase (c, a) as input voltage periodically every few kilometers, the power supply grid will be close to balance in the large scale.

To balance the power supply on the breakpoint of the traction network where the selected three phases input is changed, a Railway Power Conditioner (RPC, hub of power conversion) is designed to dynamically balance the interphase active power.

A microgrid is also connected to the RPC and plays the role of a reservoir. It will absorb extra power or supply backup power during disruption, and it provides an approach to utilize regenerative braking energy to increase energy efficiency.

Control theorems are added to make the traction network stable and improve the quality of the power supply.

# Solution component:
## 1. Railway Power Conditioner (RPC):
This is the main subsystem of this project. It aims to dynamically balance the inter-phase active power, independently compensate the reactive power of each feeder and suppress its harmonics. We will use converters, AC/DC transformers, and RC filters in this subsystem. Transformers are used to step down the high voltage at the traction network to a relatively safe low voltage to handle. AC/DC converters are used to eliminate the phase difference at the two sides of the breakpoint and make it possible to connect them. RC filters are used to suppress harmonics and provide a stable DC voltage.
## 2. Control system:
It's the algorithm part of the project. We will use control theorems to make the train run in a safe and stable manner. We will start with open-loop control, and we will design PID closed-loop control later. We will also try data-driven maximum power point tracking control to extract maximum power from the solar panel. Through designing control signals for switching functions from Arduino, some switches can be opened or closed to achieve the purpose of those converters.
## 3. MTDC (Multi-terminal dc transmission control system:
This is the bus that connects RPC and other sources from the microgrid (like photovoltaic, battery, and even wind power). We need to design an MTDC that can satisfy our different expectations. For RPC and battery, we need a stable voltage reference, while for solar panels, we need to change the DC voltage value to extract maximum power. This can be realized by designing a proper DC/DC converter for each component.
## 4. Three-phase voltage source and solar panel:
These are the external voltage sources that provide power to the system. Instead of using the 110kV/220kV external power grid, we will use a much safer 220V three-phase voltage source from sockets. We will borrow solar panels from the lab and connect them in parallel as the microgrid source to simulate the solar farm.

# Criterion for success:
- Two AC voltage sources with different phases are converted into the same DC voltage through RPC. This implies the two voltages on either side of the breakpoint are connected and this proves the functionality of RPC.
- MTDC provides the required voltage for each connected component. We can use a voltmeter to test whether the voltage is the desired voltage for each port of the MTDC. The port for RPC and the battery should be stable, while the port for the solar panel should vary with time to meet the maximum power extraction.
- Apply some disturbance on the system to assess its stability. We can connect a resistance in series with the train load to simulate that more traction is needed. If the DC voltage at RPC becomes stable again soon after we add the resistance, the system has relatively good resilience. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages can also be judged by comparing the results of different algorithms, such as whether the maximum power point tracking can be achieved in the shortest possible time.

# Distribution of work:
1. One group member (EE *Yongcan Wang*) will do some research on designing the voltage level for each wire of the system. He is also responsible for selecting the appropriate transformers that meet these voltage specs on the market and installing them into the circuit.
2. One group member (EE *Jiebang Xia*) is responsible for the converters and filters part. He needs to think about how to use appropriate semiconductor components to build the AC/DC and DC/DC converters to meet our requirements for RPC and MTDC. He is also responsible to select the specification of the filter that results in desired time constant.
3. One group member (EE *Kai Zhang*) is responsible for clarification of the whole principle. This member needs to understand the working principle of the whole system and will also help the member who is responsible for hardware, help him with some connections, select hardware specifications, etc.
4. One team member (ECE *Jiakai Lin*) is responsible for the programming part of the software, especially designing the control algorithms for those AC/DC and DC/DC converters in different areas and the short-time maximum power point tracking algorithm.

Our project has some control programs that need to be completed by ECE students, and most of the other parts are the study and practical application of some hardware principles of electrical engineering, as well as the application of power supply and power grid knowledge.

Remote Driving System

Bo Pang, Jiahao Wei, Kangyu Zhu

Featured Project

#### TEAM MEMBERS

Jiahao Wei (jiahaow4)

Bo Pang (bopang5)

Kangyu Zhu (Kangyuz2)

## REMOTE DRIVING SYSTEM

#### PROBLEM:

In daily life, people might not be able to drive due to factors like fatigue and alcohol. In this case, remote chauffeur can act as the driver to make the driving safe and reduce the incidence of traffic accidents. Remote chauffeuring can improve the convenience of driving. In the case of urban traffic congestion and parking difficulties, remote chauffeurs allow drivers to park their vehicles in parking lots away from the city center and then deliver them to their destination via remote control.

#### SOLUTION OVERVIEW:

The remote driving system is designed to provide real-time feedback of the car's external environment and internal movement information to the remote chauffeurs. Through the use of advanced technologies, the remote chauffeurs can remotely operate the car's movement using various devices. This system is capable of monitoring the car's speed, distance from obstacles, and battery life, and transmitting this information to the remote chauffeurs in a clear and easy-to-understand format.

#### SOLUTION COMPONENTS:

##### Modules on TurtleBot3 :

- The mechanical control system: to achieve the basic motion functions of the TurtleBot3 car.

- The distance sensing system used for monitoring the surrounding environment: Using LiDAR to detect the distance of the car in different directions.

- The system used for monitoring the vehicle's status: real-time monitoring the car's battery power, speed, etc., and uploading the data to the PC server in real-time.

##### Server Modules:

- The transmission system used to remotely control the car: implemented using Arduino IDE.

- The system used to build an AR-based information interaction system: implemented using Unity.

- The system used to output specific car motion commands: implemented using ROS to control the car.

##### HRI modules:

- The gesture recognition system used to recognize gestures given by people and feed back to the central PC server.

- The device used for interaction between the car and people: transmitting real-time surrounding information of the car to the Hololens 2 glasses in video form.

#### CRITERION FOR SUCCESS:

- Functionality: The remote driving system needs to be able to facilitate interaction between the user and the vehicle, enabling the user to remotely control the vehicle's steering, acceleration, and deceleration functions.

- User experience: The user can obtain real-time information about the surrounding environment while driving the vehicle through the glasses, and control the vehicle's movement through gestures.

- Environmental parameter detection: The vehicle can obtain distance information about the environment and its own real-time information.

- Durability and stability: The server needs to maintain a stable connection between the vehicle and the user.

#### DISTRIBUTION OF WORK:

- ECE STUDENT PANG BO:

Implementing the ROS interaction with the PC, using the ROS platform to control the car's speed and direction.

- ECE STUDENT WEI JIAHAO:

Building the car, implementing environmental monitoring and video transmission, ensuring stable transmission of environmental information to the user.

Implementing speed measurement, obstacle distance detection, and battery level monitoring for the car.

- EE STUDENT ZHU KANGYU:

Designing the AR interaction, issuing AR information prompts when the car is overspeeding or approaching obstacles.

Implementing hand gesture recognition for interaction between hololens2 and PC.