Progetto e realizzazione del sistema di gestione autonoma del volo e controllo in remoto per un velivolo UAV ad ala rotante

This PhD thesis presents the results, achieved at the Aerospace Engineering Department Laboratories of the University of Bologna, concerning the development of a small scale Rotary wing UAVs (RUAVs). In the first part of the work, a mission simulation environment for rotary wing UAVs was developed, as main outcome of the University of Bologna partnership in the CAPECON program (an EU funded research program aimed at studying the UAVs civil applications and economic effectiveness of the potential configuration solutions). The results achieved in cooperation with DLR (German Aerospace Centre) and with an helicopter industrial partners will be described. In the second part of the work, the set-up of a real small scale rotary wing platform was performed. The work was carried out following a series of subsequent logical steps from hardware selection and set-up to final autonomous flight tests. This thesis will focus mainly on the RUAV avionics package set-up, on the onboard software development and final experimental tests. The setup of the electronic package allowed recording of helicopter responses to pilot commands and provided deep insight into the small scale rotorcraft dynamics, facilitating the development of helicopter models and control systems in a Hardware In the Loop (HIL) simulator. A neested PI velocity controller1 was implemented on the onboard computer and autonomous flight tests were performed. Comparison between HIL simulation and experimental results showed good agreement.

Analisi e ottimizzazione termodinamica del sistema di generazione di potenza di un impianto solare a concentrazione ibrido

Impianto solare termodinamico a concentrazione per la produzione di energia elettrica.

Ottimizzazione di un Sistema di Key Performance Indicators per la Divisione Engineering aziendale. Il caso INTERTABA S.p.A.

Il seguente elaborato è la diretta conseguenza di un periodo di stage, pari a cinque mesi, svolto presso l’azienda INTERTABA S.p.A., a Zola Predosa (BO). Il Dipartimento presso cui è stato svolto il tirocinio è l’Engineering. In particolare è stata compiuta un’analisi dei KPIs presenti e sono state proposte delle azioni migliorative. Il lavoro si è sviluppato in tre fasi. Nella prima fase è stata fatta un’analisi dei KPIs attuali per ciascuna funzione appartenente all’Engineering: Engineering Support, Project Engineering, Plant & Utilities Maintenance, Technical Warehouse e General Services. Nella seconda fase sono state descritte, per ciascuna funzione, alcune proposte migliorative per i KPIs presenti. Infine, per alcune funzioni, sono state proposte alcune iniziative in merito all’implementazione di nuovi KPIs.

Creazione e sviluppo di un sistema di controllo in tempo reale per un sistema fuel cell

The control of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell system (PEM FC) for domestic heat and power supply requires extensive control measures to handle the complicated process. Highly dynamic and non linear behavior, increase drastically the difficulties to find the optimal design and control strategies. The objective is to design, implement and commission a controller for the entire fuel cell system. The fuel cell process and the control system are engineered simultaneously; therefore there is no access to the process hardware during the control system development. Therefore the method of choice was a model based design approach, following the rapid control prototyping (RCP) methodology. The fuel cell system is simulated using a fuel cell library which allowed thermodynamic calculations. In the course of the development the process model is continuously adapted to the real system. The controller application is designed and developed in parallel and thereby tested and verified against the process model. Furthermore, after the commissioning of the real system, the process model can be also better identified and parameterized utilizing measurement data to perform optimization procedures. The process model and the controller application are implemented in Simulink using Mathworks` Real Time Workshop (RTW) and the xPC development suite for MiL (model-in-theloop) and HiL (hardware-in-the-loop) testing. It is possible to completely develop, verify and validate the controller application without depending on the real fuel cell system, which is not available for testing during the development process. The fuel cell system can be immediately taken into operation after connecting the controller to the process.