ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
Traditionally, grid connected PV inverters required a transformer for isolation and safety. The disadvantage of high frequency transformer based inverters is complexity and cost. Transformerless inverters have become more popular recently, although they can be challenging to implement because of possible high frequency currents through the PV array's stay capacitance to earth ground. Conventional PV inverters also typically utilize electrolytic capacitors for bulk power buffering. However such capacitors can be prone to decreased reliability.
The solution proposed here to solve these problems is a bi directional buck boost converter combined with half bridge inverters. This configuration enables grounding of the array's negative terminal and passive power decoupling with only film capacitors.
Several aspects of the proposed converter are discussed. First a literature review is presented on the issues to be addressed. The proposed circuit is then presented and examined in detail. This includes theory of operation, component selection, and control systems. An efficiency analysis is also conducted. Simulation results are then presented that show correct functionality. A hardware prototype is built and experiment results also prove the concept. Finally some further developments are mentioned.
As a summary of the research a new topology and control technique were developed. The resultant circuit is a high performance transformerless PV inverter with upwards of 97% efficiency.
This document presents the research conducted to discriminate between reliable and unreliable models with the help of certain metrics. This was done by first eyeballing the prediction performance and then evaluating a number of mathematical metrics. Efforts were made to recognize the cause behind an unreliable model. Also research was conducted to improve the accuracy of the performance of the existing models.
A new application, described in this document, has been developed to automate the process of building thermal models for multiple transformers. These thermal models can then be used for transformer dynamic loading.
Humans desire compliant robots to safely interact in dynamic environments
associated with daily activities. As surface electromyography non-invasively measures
limb motion intent and correlates with joint stiness during co-contractions,
it has been identied as a candidate for naturally controlling such robots. However,
state-of-the-art myoelectric interfaces have struggled to achieve both enhanced
functionality and long-term reliability. As demands in myoelectric interfaces trend
toward simultaneous and proportional control of compliant robots, robust processing
of multi-muscle coordinations, or synergies, plays a larger role in the success of the
control scheme. This dissertation presents a framework enhancing the utility of myoelectric
interfaces by exploiting motor skill learning and
exible muscle synergies for
reliable long-term simultaneous and proportional control of multifunctional compliant
robots. The interface is learned as a new motor skill specic to the controller,
providing long-term performance enhancements without requiring any retraining or
recalibration of the system. Moreover, the framework oers control of both motion
and stiness simultaneously for intuitive and compliant human-robot interaction. The
framework is validated through a series of experiments characterizing motor learning
properties and demonstrating control capabilities not seen previously in the literature.
The results validate the approach as a viable option to remove the trade-o
between functionality and reliability that have hindered state-of-the-art myoelectric
interfaces. Thus, this research contributes to the expansion and enhancement of myoelectric
controlled applications beyond commonly perceived anthropomorphic and
\intuitive control" constraints and into more advanced robotic systems designed for
everyday tasks.
The voltage unbalance induced by PV generators can aggravate the existing unbalance due to load mismatch. An increased phase unbalance significantly adds to the neutral currents, excessive neutral to ground voltages and violate the standards for unbalance factor. The objective of this study is to analyze and quantify the impacts of unbalanced PV installations on a distribution feeder. Additionally, a power electronic converter solution is proposed to mitigate the identified impacts and validate the solution's effectiveness through detailed simulations in OpenDSS.
The benefits associated with the use of energy storage systems for electric- utility-related applications are also studied. This research provides a generalized framework for strategic deployment of a lithium-ion based energy storage system to increase their benefits in a distribution feeder. A significant amount of work has been performed for a detailed characterization of the life cycle costs of an energy storage system. The objectives include - reduction of the substation transformer losses, reduction of the life cycle cost for an energy storage system, and accommodate the PV variability.
The distribution feeder laterals in the distribution feeder with relatively high PV generation as compared to the load can be operated as microgrids to achieve reliability, power quality and economic benefits. However, the renewable resources are intermittent and stochastic in nature. A novel approach for sizing and scheduling the energy storage system and microtrubine is proposed for reliable operation of microgrids. The size and schedule of the energy storage system and microturbine are determined using Benders' decomposition, considering the PV generation as a stochastic resource.
Signals from the system are used to obtain the frequency response of the component transfer functions. The magnitude and phase angle of the transfer functions are obtained using the fast Fourier transform. The transfer function phase angles of base cases (no attack) are stored and are compared with the phase angles calculated at regular time intervals. If the difference in the phase characteristics is greater than a set threshold, an alarm is issued indicating the detection of a cyber attack.
The developed algorithm is designed for use in the envisioned Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) system. Examples are shown for the noise free and noisy cases.