Research on Distribution Automation Testing Platform Based on Kubernetes Technology

The author discusses the issues involved with the interfacing of distribution automation (DA) equipment and the normal distribution system protection equipment. Distribution automation involves many different forms of automating the operating of a distribution system. Most utilize microprocessor-based equipment which have software and the necessary hardware interfaces to implement operating decisions. Some of the details of these hardware interfaces and the philosophy behind these interfaces are considered. Practical aspects of interfacing DA equipment to specific protection requirements are discussed.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Smart grid is a power grid consists of extensive monitoring systems which deal with the monitoring of attributes such as current, voltage, power, and energy at distribution transformers, substations transformers, distribution switching devices and smart meters. Smart grid with advanced communication technologies can be used for several purposes such as efficiency and reliability improvement. IEC 61850 is the core standard in the smart grid domain for distribution and substation automation. This paper introduces a vision of modern substation and distribution systems using the IEC 61850. Network operators mainly assume that the modern substation and distribution systems based on the IEC 61850 are reliable for a long-time of operation. However, similar to any other systems, the implemented IEC 61850 might fail because of the operational failures or aging failures. This paper proposes a novel method for reliability evaluation of modern substation and distribution systems. A typical IEC 61850 based distribution and substation system is developed and analyzed using the proposed method. The fault tree analysis (FTA) is used to quantify the reliability of the system. The technique is implemented and demonstrated on the Roy Billinton test system (RBTS). The analysis is further extended on a 400/63 kV substation with a breaker-and-a-half configuration. In addition, the technique proves to be robust under different operations. The results verify the feasibility and applicability of the proposed method.

The development of a PC-based functional test platform that incorporates Statistical Process Control (SPC) and a failure analysis database is described. With Commercial Off-The-Shelf(COTS) tools available it is possible in a low volume high-mix environment to easily obtain basic statistical information on each test, develop an easily accessible database of information on failures, causes of failures and troubleshooting activities and increase test efficiency with minimal test development costs. A common test platform has been developed that can be configured to test a wide variety of sub-assemblies from digital controller cards to radio frequency (RF) modules. The platform consists of a PC with a multi-function data acquisition card and a General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB) card for control of test instruments. Applications are linked with Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) and the PCs are connected to the company's Local Area Network (LAN) so that test data can be accessed from throughout the plant. A key point is the implementation of SPC with this test platform. Statistics include process capability indices C/sub p/ and C/sub pk/ and failure rate. Test data is analyzed and used to make process improvements. Examples are presented. Since the entire system has been designed and built around established COTS software and hardware, additional capabilities can be easily added in the future. Some planned enhancements are described.

The next generation automatic test system (NGATS) is the latest addition to the Integrated family of test equipment (IFTE) developed and managed by product manager, test, measurement and diagnostic equipment (PM TMDE). This is Version 6 of what is commonly known as the Base Shop Test Facility series of systems developed by the off platform, automatic test system program. NGATS is a reconfigurable, general-purpose, mobile, deployable, automatic test system designed to provide sustainment support to all Army weapon systems. This flexible testing platform will finally standardize and reduce the quantity of the Army's ATE systems to one modern tester and improve weapon system availability. It will allow for a decrease in logistical support requirements for ATE systems and the supported weapons systems and increase the mobility, deployability, affordability and supportability, of automated test equipment. NGATS assures compliance with Joint NxTest architecture and will support the agile rapid global combat support (ARGCS) advanced concept technology demonstration (ACTD) by using a common framework for DOD automatic test systems (ATS). Incremental deployment of this system will ultimately modernize and replace three existing test platforms, DSESTS, BSTF (V) 3, and BSTF (V) 5. NGATS will not only support the weapons systems currently fielded but will also support additional weapons systems as they are developed and fielded in the future. The NGATS will initially take advantage of the existing Test Program Sets for legacy weapons systems however new systems and those legacy systems that will remain in the Army inventory will have TPSs designed to take full advantage of the modern NGATS technology. Increment 1 replaces DSESTS and supports the weapons systems in the heavy brigade combat team (HBCT). The TPSs for Abrams, Bradley and other systems will be rehosted to NGATS with significant improvements. Increment 2 replaces BSTF (V) 3 and supports the MLRS, Avenger, Paladin, TOW, SINCGARS, Kiowa Warrior, Ground Based Sensor, G/VLLD, and M1A1 (SRUs) systems. Increment 3 replaces BSTF (V) 5 and supports the Kiowa Warrior and Apache. There has been increased interest in utilizing the IFTE NGATS as an Army organic sustainment support platform. Other systems that are candidates for support are KNIGHT, LLDR, STRYKER, FCS, Firefinder, LOSAT, NLOS, HIMARS, Land Warrior, SHORADS, TAD, and CROWS.

A wide range of Radio Frequency (RF) assemblies require testing during their development and production. These include amplifiers, mixers, filters, up converters, down converters, antennas, phase shifters, power dividers, power combiners, Integrated Master Assemblies (IMAs), Weapons Replaceable Assemblies (WRAs), Line Replaceable Units (LRUs) and radio subassemblies. Though there are many differences between the RF assemblies, they all require a test system that is accurate, reliable and traceable while simultaneously minimizing test times. Other important attributes of a test platform for RF assemblies are that it must be calibrated, fully-characterized and incorporate self-test functionality. The test platform must also include a digital control solution for triggering, communicating with Units Under Test (UUT) and interfacing with handlers, fixtures, etc. Finally, the software for the test equipment must also be considered. Typical software functionality would include sequencing, reporting, testing, calibration, and self-test. While it is certainly possible to develop a test system specific to each type of RF assembly; there are many benefits to developing a common RF test platform that includes the functionality listed above.

When creating a test platform, the primary focus is often on the selection of test and measurement instrumentation or the test programming environment. Although it is important to ensure that the selected instrumentation can provide the proper stimulus and measurement capabilities, it is also important to consider how you are going to cable and interface the test platform to the Unit Under Test (UUT). High accuracy measurement devices can be undone by a poorly performing interface. Here are some examples; • UUTs incorporating wireless communication will need a test platform to measure high frequency and low power signals. Selecting the wrong cable or not accounting for insertion loss on connectors can severely impact the accuracy of testing. • Measurement devices which are used to test a wide number of products can degrade their instrument's connectors from frequent changing of the test interface or cabling. This can be mitigated by using external test interfaces. In these applications it is important to consider the lifetime of the interconnect used and how easily it can be repaired on-site. Apart from manual bench top testing, automated test applications will involve some signal management, or switching. This adds a whole layer of potential factors that could limit the performance of any test solution if all factors are not taken into account. In all but the simplest test scenarios, test resources will need to be shared between multiple UUT points requiring some kind of switching system and interfacing. This interfacing between test instrumentation, switching system and the UUT could involve connector to connector and connector to UUT wiring. Also, there may be a test fixture interface that is either manually or automatically operated. This requires careful consideration as the cumulative effect of all these factors may significantly degrade the ability to test the UUT to the desired specifications. Another factor to consider is that the testing application may involve adverse environmental conditions. This paper will discuss aspects of test interfacing. While we cannot cover all possible methods in this short paper, we will look at considerations for selecting a test fixture interface, cables and connectors, mass interconnect and RF/Microwave applications. Please note that while we are using some Pickering products as examples, these recommendations apply to any test vendor or platform.

Based on the function and performance testing requirements of IoV(Internet of Vehicles), a design scheme of automatic simulation test and verification platform for IoV based on cellular network and real network in-loop was proposed. Firstly, we expounds the overall structure of the simulation test platform and the specific function of each component. Then we discussed the main and functional components of the real cellular network simulation subsystem. Finally, two typical application test scenarios are designed and listed, namely, remote startup delay test of vehicle based on cloud platform and IoV resident performance test of different frequency cell switching under dynamic scenario. Experimental results verify that the simulation test platform can meet the test verification, performance evaluation and troubleshooting capabilities of IoV function. It is of positive significance to improve the application experience of intelligent connected vehicles and IoV.

Testing FPGA switching characteristics on general purpose electronic test equipment(GPETE) test platform has much lower financial cost and more accessibility than testing on Automatic Test Equipment(ATE). However, when testing on GPETE platform, test accuracy is more easily influenced by device under test(DUT) board and test equipment, and some kinds of stimuli such as maximum frequency stimulus is difficult to impose. This paper presents several test methods aiming to ensure the test accuracy and solve maximum frequency stimulus imposing problem of GPETE test platform. Our methods are: 1) Time-to-Digital Converter(TDC) method to reduce test equipment's impact on test accuracy; 2) Comparing technique to eliminate delay interference from DUT board and extra delay path inside the chip; and 3) Digital Clock Manager(DCM) method to solve maximum stimulus imposing problem. Test results of XC4VLX200 FPGA shows that our methods have a relatively good accuracy and the stimulus imposing problem has been solved to some extent.

A computer and communications system is presented for controlling the operations of load management, distribution automation, and distribution SCADA for a G&T cooperative, Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, and its 12 member cooperatives. The system is currently being designed and delivered by a team of vendors, which involves an EMS/SCADA system vendor and a load management/distribution automation equipment vendor. The system coordinates the scheduling of load management for the member cooperatives so as to minimize the power bills to the power suppliers. Each member cooperative can use the system to implement distribution SCADA and distribution automation functions, thus improving its operation efficiency and service quality. A description is given of the functions, special features, and implementation and development experience for the system. >

Electric tractors (ETs) have attached significant attention in recent years due to the increasingly stringent exhaust emission policies all over the world. However, testing and evaluating all possible architectures and component sizes for ETs would be a time-consuming and expensive task. Establishing a comprehensive test bench that can implement different powertrain architectures as much as possible is thus an important and challenging task. In this study, a novel reconfigurable test platform is proposed according to the analysis results of the powertrain topologies of ETs. These results provide a verification platform to explore powertrain architecture options in future work. To be easily reconstructed under different architectures, the component installation and control system of this test platform was designed based on the modular, reconfigurable concept. To verify the feasibility of the reconfigurable test platform, two powertrain configurations were built based on this test platform framework. The rotary tillage experiments were conducted on these two configurations. The results show that the proposed reconfigurable test bench is reasonably practicable. Moreover, the control precision of the established test bench is demonstrated by comparing the torque results obtained from the experiment with the reference torque values, which indicated that this test bench also has the potential to be adapted to complex farming work scenarios.

Design and Verification of an Integrated Multi-task Testing Platform for FCV Powertrain System

Highway tunnel lighting equipment, as an important equipment to ensure traffic safety in highway tunnel, has some problems in its production, installation, commissioning and operation, such as low intelligence degree and weak man machine interaction operation. On the basis of studying the existing test methods of highway tunnel lighting equipment, this paper designs an improved test process and method of highway tunnel lighting equipment, builds a cloud management platform for test data, realizes the automatic test of highway tunnel lighting equipment by using remote client combined with Ethernet, realizes the intellectualization of test process and the standardization of test data. The database and background management software deployed on the remote server can realize the classified management of many kinds of test data. The system can improve the testing efficiency of lighting equipment for the highway tunnel lighting equipment production enterprises, and improve the management efficiency and quality for the highway tunnel lighting management department.

This report summarizes scientific/technical progress made for bench-scale membrane contactor technology for post-combustion CO2 capture from DOE Contract No. DE-FE-0004787. Budget Period 1 (BP1) membrane absorber, Budget Period 2 (BP2) membrane desorber and Budget Period 3 (BP3) integrated system and field testing studies have been completed successfully and met or exceeded the technical targets (≥ 90% CO2 removal and CO2 purity of 97% in one membrane stage). Significant breakthroughs are summarized below: BP1 research: The feasibility of utilizing the poly (ether ether ketone), PEEK, based hollow fiber contractor (HFC) in combination with chemical solvents to separate and capture at least 90% of the CO2 from simulated flue gases has been successfully established. Excellent progress has been made as we have achieved the BP1 goal: ≥ 1,000 membrane intrinsic CO2 permeance, ≥ 90% CO2 removal in one stage, ≤ 2 psi gas side pressure drop, and ≥ 1 (sec)-1 mass transfer coefficient. Initial test results also show that the CO2 capture performance, using activated Methyl Diethanol Amine (aMDEA) solvent, was not affected by flue gas contaminants O2 (~3%), NO2 (66 ppmv), and SO2 (145 ppmv). BP2 research: The feasibility of utilizing the PEEK HFC for CO2-loaded solvent regeneration has been successfully established High CO2 stripping flux, one order of magnitude higher than CO2 absorption flux, have been achieved. Refined economic evaluation based on BP1 membrane absorber and BP2 membrane desorber laboratory test data indicate that the CO2 capture costs are 36% lower than DOE’s benchmark amine absorption technology. BP3 research: A bench-scale system utilizing a membrane absorber and desorber was integrated into a continuous CO2 capture process using contactors containing 10 to 20 ft2 of membrane area. The integrated process operation was stable through a 100-hour laboratory test, utilizing a simulated flue gas stream. Greater than 90% CO2 capture combined with 97% CO2 product purity was achieved throughout the test. Membrane contactor modules have been scaled from bench scale 2-inch diameter by 12-inch long (20 ft2 membrane surface area) modules to 4-inch diameter by 60-inch long pilot scale modules (165 ft2 membrane surface area). Pilot scale modules were tested in an integrated absorption/regeneration system for CO2 capture field tests at a coal-fired power plant (Midwest Generation’s Will County Station located in Romeoville, IL). Absorption and regeneration contactors were constructed utilizing high performance super-hydrophobic, nano-porous PEEK membranes with CO2 gas permeance of 2,000 GPU and a 1,000 GPU, respectively. Field tests using aMDEA solvent achieved greater than 90% CO2 removal in a single stage. The absorption mass transfer coefficient was 1.2 (sec)-1, exceeding the initial target of 1.0 (sec)-1. This mass transfer coefficient is over one order of magnitude greater than that of conventional gas/liquid contacting equipment. The economic evaluation based on field tests data indicates that the CO2 capture cost associated with membrane contactor technology is $54.69 (Yr 2011$)/tonne of CO2 captured when using aMDEA as a solvent. It is projected that the DOE’s 2025 cost goal of $40 (Yr 2011$)/tonne of CO2 captured can be met by decreasing membrane module cost and by utilizing advanced CO2 capture solvents. In the second stage of the field test, an advanced solvent, Hitachi’s H3-1 was utilized. The use of H3-1 solvent increased mass transfer coefficient by 17% as compared to aMDEA solvent. The high mass transfer coefficient of H3-1 solvent combined with much more favorable solvent regeneration requirements, indicate that the projected savings achievable with membrane contactor process can be further improved. H3-1 solvent will be used in the next pilot-scale development phase. The integrated absorption/regeneration process design and high performance membrane contactors developed in the current bench-scale program will be used as the base technology for future pilot-scale development.

Office software may have program vulnerabilities in terms of functionality. To discover and solve these vulnerabilities, it's essential to conduct test on its application programming interface (API). But how to test in a heterogeneous platform and how to realize test automation are the two major difficulties. This article proposes an automated office software test method, which separates the operation platform from the test platform, and is driven by test cases. In this way, it can effectively facilitate the test in a heterogeneous platform, and improve the automation degree. In such a case, this article designs an automated office software test system. Comparing with previous manual test systems, it is with a higher automation degree, and can save a large amount of human cost in office software test.

The endurance performance (EP) of electric multi-rotors spraying drones (EMSDs) is a key technical indicator that ensures the completion of tasks and improves their usefulness. To improve the EP of current EMSD, a test system was designed to determine the EP based on the EMSD test platform, and the performance evaluation method was studied. Firstly, a test model was established to determine the equivalent energy dissipation using the performance-testing platform of the EMSD. Secondly, a multisensory test system was constructed. An attitude sensor, high-power DC power supply, infrared thermal imager, and serial port server were selected. The mounting fixture was designed to meet the universal mounting requirements of drone. In addition, the software LabVIEW was employed to program the code for the controller and the host computer, where functions such as data collection, data processing, communication, and graphical user interface (GUI), were performed reliably in real time. Thirdly, the test method was explored by considering factors such as the power consumption, thermal efficiency ratio, and unit load power consumption rate. In particular, a comprehensive index method and expert consultation weight method were used to evaluate the EP of the EMSD with multiple indexes. Finally, a systematic real-machine test was carried out on the three types of drones that are currently widely used in the market. The results verified the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method, which was employed to test and evaluate the EP based on the EMSD performance testing platform. At the same time, it can provide a reference for the development of the EMSD. Keywords: agricultural aviation, multi-rotors spraying drone, endurance performance, assessment method, virtual instrument DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20191202.4348 Citation: Ming R, Zhou Z Y, Luo X W, Lan Y B, He X G, Song C C, et al. Test and evaluation method for endurance performance of electric multi-rotors spraying drones. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2019; 12(2): 18–28.