Distributed Generation and Demand Response Dispatch for a Virtual Power Player Energy and Reserve Provision

Recent changes in the operation and planning of power systems have been motivated by the introduction of Distributed Generation (DG) and Demand Response (DR) in the competitive electricity markets' environment, with deep concerns at the efficiency level. In this context, grid operators, market operators, utilities and consumers must adopt strategies and methods to take full advantage of demand response and distributed generation. This requires that all the involved players consider all the market opportunities, as the case of energy and reserve components of electricity markets. The present paper proposes a methodology which considers the joint dispatch of demand response and distributed generation in the context of a distribution network operated by a virtual power player. The resources' participation can be performed in both energy and reserve contexts. This methodology contemplates the probability of actually using the reserve and the distribution network constraints. Its application is illustrated in this paper using a 32-bus distribution network with 66 DG units and 218 consumers classified into 6 types of consumers.

Multi-agent system for distributed manufacturing scheduling with genetic algorithms and tabu search

Computerized scheduling methods and computerized scheduling systems according to exemplary embodiments. A computerized scheduling method may be stored in a memory and executed on one or more processors. The method may include defining a main multi-machine scheduling problem as a plurality of single machine scheduling problems; independently solving the plurality of single machine scheduling problems thereby calculating a plurality of near optimal single machine scheduling problem solutions; integrating the plurality of near optimal single machine scheduling problem solutions into a main multi-machine scheduling problem solution; and outputting the main multi-machine scheduling problem solution.

Large-area homogeneous periodic surface structures generated on the surface sputtered boron carbide thin films by femtosecond laser processing

Amorphous and crystalline sputtered boron carbide thin films have a very high hardness even surpassing that of bulk crystalline boron carbide (≈41 GPa). However, magnetron sputtered B-C films have high friction coefficients (C.o.F) which limit their industrial application. Nanopatterning of materials surfaces has been proposed as a solution to decrease the C.o.F. The contact area of the nanopatterned surfaces is decreased due to the nanometre size of the asperities which results in a significant reduction of adhesion and friction. In the present work, the surface of amorphous and polycrystalline B-C thin films deposited by magnetron sputtering was nanopatterned using infrared femtosecond laser radiation. Successive parallel laser tracks 10 μm apart were overlapped in order to obtain a processed area of about 3 mm2. Sinusoidal-like undulations with the same spatial period as the laser tracks were formed on the surface of the amorphous boron carbide films after laser processing. The undulations amplitude increases with increasing laser fluence. The formation of undulations with a 10 μm period was also observed on the surface of the crystalline boron carbide film processed with a pulse energy of 72 μJ. The amplitude of the undulations is about 10 times higher than in the amorphous films processed at the same pulse energy due to the higher roughness of the films and consequent increase in laser radiation absorption. LIPSS formation on the surface of the films was achieved for the three B-C films under study. However, LIPSS are formed under different circumstances. Processing of the amorphous films at low fluence (72 μJ) results in LIPSS formation only on localized spots on the film surface. LIPSS formation was also observed on the top of the undulations formed after laser processing with 78 μJ of the amorphous film deposited at 800 °C. Finally, large-area homogeneous LIPSS coverage of the boron carbide crystalline films surface was achieved within a large range of laser fluences although holes are also formed at higher laser fluences.

Supporting On-Line Distributed Monitoring and Debugging

Monitoring systems have traditionally been developed with rigid objectives and functionalities, and tied to specific languages, libraries and run-time environments. There is a need for more flexible monitoring systems which can be easily adapted to distinct requirements. On-line monitoring has been considered as increasingly important for observation and control of a distributed application. In this paper we discuss monitoring interfaces and architectures which support more extensible monitoring and control services. We describe our work on the development of a distributed monitoring infrastructure, and illustrate how it eases the implementation of a complex distributed debugging architecture. We also discuss several issues concerning support for tool interoperability and illustrate how the cooperation among multiple concurrent tools can ease the task of distributed debugging.

Preliminary study on the production of functionally graded materials by friction stir processing

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica

Cloud-assisted Wireless Body Area Networks

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) have emerged as a promising technology for medical and non-medical applications. WBANs consist of a number of miniaturized, portable, and autonomous sensor nodes that are used for long-term health monitoring of patients. These sensor nodes continuously collect information of patients, which are used for ubiquitous health monitoring. In addition, WBANs may be used for managing catastrophic events and increasing the effectiveness and performance of rescue forces. The huge amount of data collected by WBAN nodes demands scalable, on-demand, powerful, and secure storage and processing infrastructure. Cloud computing is expected to play a significant role in achieving the aforementioned objectives. The cloud computing environment links different devices ranging from miniaturized sensor nodes to high-performance supercomputers for delivering people-centric and context-centric services to the individuals and industries. The possible integration of WBANs with cloud computing (WBAN-cloud) will introduce viable and hybrid platform that must be able to process the huge amount of data collected from multiple WBANs. This WBAN-cloud will enable users (including physicians and nurses) to globally access the processing and storage infrastructure at competitive costs. Because WBANs forward useful and life-critical information to the cloud – which may operate in distributed and hostile environments, novel security mechanisms are required to prevent malicious interactions to the storage infrastructure. Both the cloud providers and the users must take strong security measures to protect the storage infrastructure.

Distributed controllers modeling through Petri nets with multi-asynchronous-channels

This paper proposes the concept of multi-asynchronous-channel for Petri nets. Petri nets extended with multi-asynchronous-channels and time-domains support the specification of distributed controllers, where each controller has a synchronous execution but the global system is asynchronous (globally-asynchronous locally-synchronous systems). Each multi-asynchronous-channel specify the interaction between two or more distributed controllers. These channels, together with the time-domain concept, ensure the creation of network-independent models to support implementations using heterogeneous communication networks. The created models support not only the systems documentation but also their validation and implementation through simulation tools, verification tools, and automatic code generators. An application example illustrates the use of a Petri net class extended with the proposed channels. © 2015 IEEE.

Petri net model decomposition - a model based approach supporting distributed execution

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Engenharia Electrotécnica, Especialidade de Sistemas Digitais, pela Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

4Sensing - decentralized processing for participatory sensing data

Trabalho apresentado no âmbito do Mestrado em Engenharia Informática, como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática.

Processing and characterization of 3D dense chitosan pieces, for orthopedic applications, by adding plasticizers

In this work, plasticizer agents were incorporated in a chitosan based formulation, as a strategy to improve the fragile structure of chitosan based-materials. Three different plasticizers: ethylene glycol, glycerol and sorbitol, were blended with chitosan to prepare 3D dense chitosan specimens. The properties of the obtained structures were assessed for mechanical, microstructural, physical and biocompatibility behavior. The results obtained revealed that from the different specimens prepared, the blend of chitosan with glycerol has superior mechanical properties and good biological behavior, making this chitosan based formulation a good candidate to improve robust chitosan structures for the construction of bioabsorbable orthopedic implants.

Advanced image processing techniques for detection and quantification of drusen

Dissertation presented to obtain the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering, speciality on Perceptional Systems, by the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculty of Sciences and Technology

Downstream processing development of enveloped viruses for clinical applications: innovative tools for rational process optimization

Dissertation presented to obtain a Ph.D. degree in Engineering and Technology Sciences, Biotechnology at the Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa

A lightweight distributed super peer election algorithm for unstructured dynamic P2P systems

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores

Using interval graphs in an order processing optimization problem

In this paper we address an order processing optimization problem known as minimization of open stacks (MOSP). We present an integer pro gramming model, based on the existence of a perfect elimination scheme in interval graphs, which finds an optimal sequence for the costumers orders.

RealCrono –sistema de difusão de resultados em tempo real na web

A velocidade de difusão de conteúdos numa plataforma web, assume uma elevada relevância em serviços onde a informação se pretende atualizada e em tempo real. Este projeto de Mestrado, apresenta uma abordagem de um sistema distribuído de recolher e difundir resultados em tempo real entre várias plataformas, nomeadamente sistemas móveis. Neste contexto, tempo real entende-se como uma diferença de tempo nula entre a recolha e difusão, ignorando fatores que não podem ser controlados pelo sistema, como latência de comunicação e tempo de processamento. Este projeto tem como base uma arquitetura existente de processamento e publicação de resultados desportivos, que apresentava alguns problemas relacionados com escalabilidade, segurança, tempos de entrega de resultados longos e sem integração com outras plataformas. Ao longo deste trabalho procurou-se investigar fatores que condicionassem a escalabilidade de uma aplicação web dando ênfase à implementação de uma solução baseada em replicação e escalabilidade horizontal. Procurou-se também apresentar uma solução de interoperabilidade entre sistemas e plataformas heterogêneas, mantendo sempre elevados níveis de performance e promovendo a introdução de plataformas móveis no sistema. De várias abordagens existentes para comunicação em tempo real sobre uma plataforma web, adotou-se um implementação baseada em WebSocket que elimina o tempo desperdiçado entre a recolha de informação e sua difusão. Neste projeto é descrito o processo de implementação da API de recolha de dados (Collector), da biblioteca de comunicação com o Collector, da aplicação web (Publisher) e sua API, da biblioteca de comunicação com o Publisher e por fim a implementação da aplicação móvel multi-plataforma. Com os componentes criados, avaliaram-se os resultados obtidos com a nova arquitetura de forma a aferir a escalabilidade e performance da solução criada e sua adaptação ao sistema existente.