A novel wide-range precision instrument for measuring three-dimensional surface topography

We developed a measuring instrument that had wide range, high precision, small measuring touch force. The instrument for three-dimensional (3D) surface topography measurement was composed of a high precision displacement sensor based on the Michelson interference principle, a 3D platform based on vertical scanning, a measuring and control circuit, and an industrial control computer. It was a closed loop control system, which changed the traditional moving stylus scanning style into a moving platform scanning style. When the workpiece was measured, the lever of the displacement sensor returned to the balanced position in every sample interval according to the zero offset of the displacement sensor. The non-linear error caused by the rotation of the lever was, therefore, very small even if the measuring range was wide. The instrument can measure the roughness and the profile size of a curved surface.

WAMS-based monitoring and control of Hopf bifurcations in multi-machine power systems

A method is proposed to monitor and control Hopf bifurcations in multi-machine power systems using the information from wide area measurement systems (WAMSs). The power method (PM) is adopted to compute the pair of conjugate eigenvalues with the algebraically largest real part and the corresponding eigenvectors of the Jacobian matrix of a power system. The distance between the current equilibrium point and the Hopf bifurcation set can be monitored dynamically by computing the pair of con- jugate eigenvalues. When the current equilibrium point is close to the Hopf bifurcation set, the approximate normal vector to the Hopf bifurcation set is computed and used as a direction to regulate control parameters to avoid a Hopf bifurcation in the power system described by differential algebraic equations (DAEs). The validity of the proposed method is demonstrated by regulating the reactive power loads in a 14-bus power system.

Recent Development of Dielectric Elastomer Transducers and Potential Applications

Power generation using dielectric elastomer transducers is cheap, light, stackable, easy to install, and highly efficient. Also, since the dielectric elastomer transducer is an actuator developed into an artificial muscle, if the DE motor is further developed, it might be possibly be able to drive a vehicle. Efficient robot driving, various industrial machines and the use of dielectric elastomer sensors to optimize the driving may also help solve the above problems from the perspective of eco-driving. This paper describes the latest level of development of dielectric elastomers, their main problems and solutions to these problems, and their potential applications. The possibilities and concrete plans for building local global smart cities (including local generation power for local consumption), efficient transportation, and environmental monitoring systems utilizing dielectric elastomers are also discussed.

Controlled islanding schemes for interconnected power systems based on coherent generator group identification and wide-area measurements

A reasonable islanding strategy of a power system is the final resort for preventing a cascading failure and/or a large-area blackout from occurrence. In recent years, the applications of wide area measurement systems(WAMS) in emergency control of power systems are increasing. Therefore, a new WAMS-based controlled islanding scheme for interconnected power systems is proposed. First, four similarity indexes associated with the trajectories of generators are defined, and the weights of these four indexes are determined by using the well-developed entropy theory. Then, a coherency identification algorithm based on hierarchical clustering is presented to determine the coherent groups of generators.Secondly, an optimization model for determining controlled islanding schemes based on the coherent groups of generators is developed to seek the optimal cutset. Finally, a 16-generator68-bus power system and a reduced WECC 29-unit 179-bus power system are employed to demonstrate the proposed WAMS-based controlled islanding schemes, and comparisons with existing slow coherency based controlled islanding strategies are also carried out.

Wide measurement range and high sensitivity spongy MWCNT/polydimethylsiloxane pressure sensor based on a single-electrode enhanced triboelectric nanogenerator

Flexible pressure sensors have broad application prospects,such as human motion monitoring and personalized recognition.However,their applicability is limited by complex structures,low output performance,low sensitivity,and narrow measurement range.In this study,we report a single-electrode spongy triboelectric sensor(SSTS)mainly composed of spongy composite multi-walled carbon nanotubes/polydimethylsiloxane(MWCNT/PDMS)film and conductive fabric,which can simultaneously generate contact electrification and electrostatic induction coupling in a single-electrode contact-separation mode.The SSTS combines the triboelectric effect,properties of doping material,and spongy porous structure(soft sugar as a sacrificial template).An SSTS with an MWCNT content of 10 wt%and a porosity of 64%exhibits high sensitivity,a wide measurement range,and excellent linearity.It also displays two sensitivity regions(slopes):1.324 V/kPa from 1.5 to 28 kPa in the low-pressure range and 0.096 V/kPa from 28 to 316.5 kPa in the high-pressure range,with linearities of 0.980 and 0.979,respectively.Furthermore,the SSTS delivers a high-performance output and high stability,thus enhancing the monitoring of hand pressure changes,human movement,personalized spatial recognition,and other detection tasks.This new strategy for human motion monitoring shows great potential in the healthcare fields,sports rehabilitation,and human-computer interactions.

Power system restoration:a literature review from 2006 to 2016

Power system restoration has attracted more attention and made great progress recently. Research progress of the power system restoration from 2006 to 2016 is reviewed in this paper, including black-start, network reconfiguration and load restoration. Some emerging methods and key techniques are also discussed in the context of the integration of variable renewable energy and development of the smart grid. There is a long way to go to achieve automatic self-healing in bulk power systems because of its extreme complexity. However, rapidly developing artificial intelligence technology will eventually enable the step-by-step dynamic decision-making based on the situation awareness of supervisory control and data acquisition systems(SCADA) and wide area measurement systems(WAMS) in the near future.

Porous fiber paper and 3D patterned electrodes composed high-sensitivity flexible piezoresistive sensor for physiological signal monitoring

The research on flexible pressure sensors has drawn widespread attention in recent years,especially in the fields of health care and intelligent robots.In practical applications,the sensitivity of sensors directly affects the precision and integrity of weak pressure signals.Here,a pressure sensor with high sensitivity and a wide measurement range composed of porous fiber paper and 3D patterned electrodes is proposed.Multi-walled carbon nanotubes with excellent conductivity were evenly sprayed on the fiber paper to form the natural spatial conducting networks,while the copper-deposited polydimethylsiloxane films with micropyramids array were used as electrodes and flexible substrates.Increased conducting paths between electrodes and fibers can be obtained when high-density micro-pyramids fall into the porous structures of the fiber paper under external pressure,thereby promoting the pressure sensor to show an ultra-high sensitivity of 17.65 kPa^(-1)in the pressure range of 0–2 kPa,16 times that of the device without patterned electrodes.Besides,the sensor retains a high sensitivity of 2.06 kPa^(-1)in an ultra-wide measurement range of 150 kPa.Moreover,the sensor can detect various physiological signals,including pulse and voice,while attached to the human skin.This work provides a novel strategy to significantly improve the sensitivity and measurement range of flexible pressure sensors,as well as demonstrates attractive applications in physiological signal monitoring.

A review on synchrophasor communication system:communication technologies,standards and applications

The present-day power system is a complex network that caters to the demands of several applications with diverse energy requirements.Such a complex network is susceptible to faults caused due to several reasons such as the failure of the equipment,hostile weather conditions,etc.These faults if not detected in the real-time may lead to cascading failures resulting in a blackout.These blackouts have catastrophic consequences which result in a huge loss of resources.For example,a blackout in 2004 caused an economic loss of 10 billion U.S dollars as per the report of the Electricity Consumers Resource Council.Subsequent investigation of the blackout revealed that the catastrophe could have been prevented if there was an early warning system.Similar other blackouts across the globe forced the power system engineers to devise an effective solution for real-time monitoring and control of the power system.The consequence of these efforts is the wide area measurement system(WAMS).The WAMS consists of several sensors known as the phasor measurement units(PMUs)that collect the real information pertaining to the health of the power grid.This information in the form time synchronized voltage and current phasors is communicated to the central control center or the phasor data concentrator(PDC)where the data is analyzed for detection of power system anomalies.The communication of the synchrophasor data from each PMU to the PDC constitutes the synchrophasor communication system(SPCS).Thus,the SPCS can be considered as the edifice of the WAMS and its reliable operation is essential for the effective monitoring and control of the power system.This paper presents a comprehensive review of the various synchrophasor communication technologies,communication standards and applications.It also identifies the existing knowledge gaps and the scope for future research work.

A novel method for analyzing dominant oscillation mode based on improved EMD and signal energy algorithm

In this paper, a novel method that integrates the improved empirical mode decomposition （EMD） and signal energy algorithm is proposed to estimate the dominant oscillation parameters and corresponding mode shape. Firstly, the EMD with symmetrical extrema extension （SEE） is utilized to decompose the measured data from wide area measurement system （WAMS） into a finite set of intrinsic mode functions （1MFs）. Then, the signal energy algorithm is used to calculate the approximate oscillation parameters of the IMFs. The nodes involved the dominant oscillation mode are classified based on the calculated frequency and reasonable threshold. Furthermore, for the dominant oscillation mode, the IMF with maximum mean amplitude is defined as the reference. Next, the relative phases （RPs） between the reference IMF and other 1MFs are calculated in order to identify the negative and positive oscillation groups. According to the values of RPs, the coherent group and corresponding node contribution factor （NCF） can be identified, and the dominant approximate mode shape （AMS） can also be determined. The efficiency of the proposed approach is tested by applying it to synthetic signal and measured data from the simulation model.

Mixed nonlinear dynamic voltage phasor tracing method based on WAMS/SCADA

By considering the static voltage characteristic of the load, we propose a WAMS/SCADA mixed nonlinear method to estimate the voltage of unobservable buses caused by topology change or phasor measurement unit (PMU) malfunction in a power system. By modeling the load characteristic with data from SCADA, we employed the Gauss-Seidel method to solve the nonlinear equations and estimate the voltage of unobservable buses with the high precision voltages of neighboring buses measured by a PMU. Simulations were carried out on the IEEE 39-bus system, and the results show that this novel method can dynamically and accurately trace the variation of the voltage phasor of the unobservable buses.