Performance enhancement of the artificial neural network–based reinforcement learning for wind turbine yaw control

The yaw angle control of a wind turbine allows maximization of the power absorbed from the wind and, thus, the increment of the system efficiency. Conventionally, classical control algorithms have been used for the yaw angle control of wind turbines. Nevertheless, in recent years, advanced control strategies have been designed and implemented for this purpose. These advanced control strategies are considered to offer improved features in comparison to classical algorithms. In this paper, an advanced yaw control strategy based on reinforcement learning (RL) is designed and verified in simulation environment. The proposed RL algorithm considers multivariable states and actions, as well as the mechanical loads due to the yaw rotation of the wind turbine nacelle and rotor. Furthermore, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) and Pareto optimal front (PoF)‐based algorithm have been developed in order to find the optimal actions that satisfy the compromise between the power gain and the mechanical loads due to the yaw rotation. Maximizing the power generation and minimizing the mechanical loads in the yaw bearings in an automatic way are the objectives of the proposed RL algorithm. The data of the matrices Q (s,a) of the RL algorithm are stored as continuous functions in an artificial neural network (ANN) avoiding any quantification problem. The NREL 5‐MW reference wind turbine has been considered for the analysis, and real wind data from Salt Lake, Utah, have been used for the validation of the designed yaw control strategy via simulations with the aeroelastic code FAST.     

Highly efficient assimilation of lactose by a metabolically engineered strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

A diploid strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae able to metabolize lactose with high efficiency has been obtained. Haploid strains of Saccharomyces able to grow on lactose were constructed by cotransformation with two genes of Kluyveromyces lactis required for the utilization of the sugar, LAC4 and LAC12, encoding β-galactosidase and lactose permease respectively. Both genes were placed under the control of a galactose-inducible promoter and targeted to the rDNA encoding region (RDN1 locus) of the Saccharomyces genome. Lac⁺ transformants were selected on medium with lactose as the only carbon source. These transformants were mitotically stable, they maintained the Lac⁺ phenotype after growing in non-selective medium for more than 60 generations, but their growth was slow. We found that this lack of vigour was caused by their genetic background and not by a deficient expression of the heterologous genes. Therefore, their performance could be improved by crossing with a wild-type strain. Among the offspring of the crosses, two strains of opposite mating type were selected and mated to obtain a fast-growing Lac⁺ diploid. This diploid strain showed the typical fermentative behaviour of S. cerevisiae when it was grown in aerated liquid medium with glucose. In lactose medium, it exhibited a respiro-fermentative metabolism similar to that of K. lactis, with low ethanol production and high biomass yield. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

In-process prediction of the hardened layer in cylindrical traverse grind-hardening

Grind-hardening is an innovative manufacturing process that takes advantage of the high amount of heat generated in the contact zone to produce a martensitic phase transformation in the subsurface layer of the workpiece. However, for a successful industrial implementation of the process, the closed loop control of the hardening depth is essential. Firstly, in this paper, cylindrical traverse grinding tests and metallographic analysis are conducted, and a grinding parameter that enables the in-process control of the hardness penetration depth (HPD) is proposed. Secondly, a nondestructive method based on the Barkhausen noise technique is presented as a quality control procedure for the HPD estimation.     

Novel control algorithm for MPPT with Boost converters in photovoltaic systems

The great advances in efficiency and performance of photovoltaic modules would not be very useful if they do not work close to their maximum power point (MPP). In this paper a novel Sliding Mode Control (SMC) based algorithm is proposed to be implemented in a DC/DC converter in order to make an autonomous photovoltaic system to work at the MPP. Once that the design of the novel algorithm has been detailed (especially the novel part relative to the current reference signal) and its stability has been demonstrated, its performance has been compared with two of the most commonly used algorithms in this scope, i.e., Perturbation & Observation (P&O) and Incremental Conductance (IC) algorithms, in addition to a PI controller because it is one of the preferred controllers in industrial applications. This comparison has been carried out taking into account both simulated and experimental tests. The first focused on their behavior when sudden changes in irradiance and temperature, while the lasts analyzed them when the load resistance was varying arbitrarily in actual facilities (composed of a photovoltaic module Mitsubishi PV-TD185MF5, a Boost converter, a variable load and a real-time data acquisition card dSPACE DSP1104 used as the interface between the control algorithm implemented in Simulink/Matlab and the real photovoltaic module). After completing tests under different conditions, we found that the proposed SMC based algorithm outperforms the PI controller and the P&O and IC algorithms, especially in experiments carried out using actual facilities.     

Occurrence and diversity of Arcobacter spp. along the Llobregat River catchment, at sewage effluents and in a drinking water treatment plant

The presence of Arcobacter species in faecally contaminated environmental waters has previously been studied. However, the ability to eliminate Arcobacter during the water treatment processes that produce drinking water has been little studied. We have investigated the prevalence and diversity of Arcobacter spp. throughout the year at 12 sampling points in the Llobregat River catchment (Catalonia, Spain) including 3 sites at a drinking water treatment plant. Positive samples for Arcobacter spp., came predominantly from the most faecally polluted sites. Recovery rates from all sites were greater in the spring (91.7%) and summer (83.3%) than in autumn and winter (75.0% in both cases), but this trend was not statistically evaluated due to the limited number of samples. Among the 339 colonies analyzed, the most prevalent species by multiplex PCR and 16S rDNA restriction fragment length polymorphism were Arcobacter butzleri (80.2%), followed by Arcobacter cryaerophilus (19.4%) and Arcobacter skirrowii (0.3%). Isolates showed a high genotype diversity as determined by the enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus PCR. In fact, 91.2% (309/339) of the colonies had different genotypes, i.e. 248 of them among the 275 isolates of A. butzleri and 60 among the 63 isolates of A. cryaerophilus and 1 genotype of A. skirrowii. Arcobacter was never detected or isolated from finished drinking water, demonstrating that water treatment is effective in removing Arcobacter species.     

On the mobile‐to‐mobile linear time‐variant shallow‐water acoustic channel response

We expose some concepts concerning the channel impulse response (CIR) of linear time‐varying (LTV) channels to give a proper characterization of the mobile‐to‐mobile underwater channel. We find different connections between the linear time‐invariant (LTI) CIR of the static channel and 2 definitions of LTV CIRs of the dynamic mobile‐to‐mobile channel. These connections are useful to design a dynamic channel simulator from the static channel models available in the literature. Such feature is particularly interesting for overspread channels, which are hard to characterize by a measuring campaign. Specifically, the shallow water acoustic (SWA) channel is potentially overspread because of the signal low velocity of propagation, which prompts long delay spread responses and great Doppler effect. Furthermore, from these connections between the LTI static CIRs and the LTV dynamic CIRs, we find that the SWA mobile‐to‐mobile CIR does not only depend on the relative speed between transceivers, but also on the absolute speed of each of them referred to the velocity of propagation. Nevertheless, publications about this topic do not consider it and formulate their equations in terms of the relative speed between transceivers. We illustrate our find using 2 couples of examples where, even though the relative speed between the mobiles is the same, their CIRs are not.     

A fully integrated 23.2 dBm P1 dB CMOS power amplifier for the IEEE 802.11a with 29% PAE

A two-stage fully integrated power amplifier (PA) for the 802.11a standard is presented. The PA has been fabricated using UMC 0.18 μm CMOS technology. Measurement results show a power gain of 21.1 dB, a P_1 dB of 23.2 dBm and a P_SAT of 26.8 dBm. The PAE is 29% and it is kept high by means of several integrated inductors. These inductors present low-DC resistance and high Q characteristics. The inductors must include extra design considerations in order to withstand the high-current levels flowing through them, so that they have been called power inductors.