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Intelligent Structural Health Monitoring on Wind Turbines
This project will focus on hardware design to integrate novel MEMS sensors with an ISPU into an existing data acquisition system for Structural Health Monitoring of wind turbine blades. The measurement system comprises 40 barometers, 5 differential pressure sensors, 10 microphones and a vibrometer. You will have the opportunity to design and assemble a new flexible PCB and potentially to evaluate its performance in a wind tunnel. There is also the possibility to focus on developing new algorithms to run on the ISPU and firmware for the MCU which controls the acquisition system.
Keywords: Structural Health Monitoring, Smart Sensors, Embedded Systems, Wind Turbines
Structural Health Monitoring SHM) is used to describe sensing systems that continuously monitor structures such as bridges, large buildings, or wind turbines and detect whenever problems such as cracks, defects, or damage occur so that these can be rectified before they present significant safety issues or lead to other usage restrictions. Ideally, these systems should be low cost, and low power, so that they can be easily installed and require minimal maintenance of their own (e.g. battery replacement) to remain functional over years or even decades.
Current state-of-the-art SHM systems, such as the Aerosense system developed at PBL, can collect and process data on an MCU, before sending data and reporting results to a host system in the cloud. However, novel sensors have been released by STMicroelectronics which contain an integrated ultra-low-power processor called an Intelligent Sensor Processing Unit. This processor contains just 32KB of program memory and 8KB of data memory. These sensors show potential for enabling on-sensor processing and could significantly reduce the volume of data that needs to be transmitted and analysed in the cloud, significantly reducing power consumption.
Prerequisites
(not all need to be met by every single candidate)
• Previous experience with PCB design (Altium)
• Programming in Python and embedded C
Character
60% Hardware and PCB design
20% Implementation
20% Verification and Testing
Structural Health Monitoring SHM) is used to describe sensing systems that continuously monitor structures such as bridges, large buildings, or wind turbines and detect whenever problems such as cracks, defects, or damage occur so that these can be rectified before they present significant safety issues or lead to other usage restrictions. Ideally, these systems should be low cost, and low power, so that they can be easily installed and require minimal maintenance of their own (e.g. battery replacement) to remain functional over years or even decades.
Current state-of-the-art SHM systems, such as the Aerosense system developed at PBL, can collect and process data on an MCU, before sending data and reporting results to a host system in the cloud. However, novel sensors have been released by STMicroelectronics which contain an integrated ultra-low-power processor called an Intelligent Sensor Processing Unit. This processor contains just 32KB of program memory and 8KB of data memory. These sensors show potential for enabling on-sensor processing and could significantly reduce the volume of data that needs to be transmitted and analysed in the cloud, significantly reducing power consumption.
Prerequisites (not all need to be met by every single candidate) • Previous experience with PCB design (Altium) • Programming in Python and embedded C
Character 60% Hardware and PCB design 20% Implementation 20% Verification and Testing
• Get familiar with the existing wind turbine data acquisition system
• Design a new flexible PCB that includes sensors with an integrated ISPU
• Assemble and verify the functionality of the new PCB
• Evaluate the power consumption and performance of the ISPU in the new system.
• (Write new firmware to integrated the new PCB into the existing system and enable successful data acquisition)
• (Test the new system in a wind tunnel and evaluate the performance of the ISPU)
• Get familiar with the existing wind turbine data acquisition system • Design a new flexible PCB that includes sensors with an integrated ISPU • Assemble and verify the functionality of the new PCB • Evaluate the power consumption and performance of the ISPU in the new system. • (Write new firmware to integrated the new PCB into the existing system and enable successful data acquisition) • (Test the new system in a wind tunnel and evaluate the performance of the ISPU)
Mistery_ISPU_Hardware_FS24.pdf
