TY - CHAP A1 - Reindl, Andrea A1 - Singer, Thomas A1 - Meier, Hans A1 - Niemetz, Michael A1 - Park, Sangyoung T1 - Framework to Test DC-DC Converters Developed for a Decentralized Battery Management System T2 - 2021 International Conference on Applied Electronics (AE): 7-8 Sept. 2021, Pilsen, Czech Republic N2 - DC- DC converters control the power flow and thus the power distribution between the components on different voltage levels. They are essential for (dis)charging batteries and influence the safety and stability of the entire battery management system (BMS). Therefore, testing the functionality and the reliability of DC-DC converters is crucial. This is especially true for decentralized battery management systems (DBMS), where multiple nodes communicate to collectively control the system. The used DC-DC converters are modified to parameterize them during operation via microcontroller interfaces. Integrating the communication into the control loop requires an analysis of the control behavior due to additional delays. Therefore, this paper proposes a framework to test DC-DC converters considering the control and communication perspectives. The response time, the control accuracy and stability of these DC-DC converters, e.g., under continuous and abrupt load changes, are measured in automated tests. The dedicated software framework simulates the DBMS and stimulates the hardware components (e.g. electronic loads, data acquisition) via respective interfaces (CAN, RS232). This allows the test of various DC-DC converters with flexibly adaptable load and power generation profiles. An initial application validates the test framework by verifying the aforementioned aspects and thus the applicability of a DC-DC converter within the DBMS. KW - Batteries KW - Battery management system KW - Battery management systems KW - Control systems KW - DC-DC converter KW - DC-DC power converters KW - decentralized control KW - hardware in the loop testing KW - object oriented programming KW - Power system stability KW - Python KW - Stability analysis KW - system testing KW - Time measurement Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.23919/AE51540.2021.9542882 SP - 1 EP - 6 PB - IEEE ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Niemetz, Michael T1 - Planned Chaos in Electrical Engineering Education T2 - 6th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'20): 02.06.2020 - 05.06.2020, Valencia N2 - This paper presents the idea to intentionally introduce planned chaos into electrical engineering lectures and lab courses to improve students’ learning success. The reason to present this idea are several personal experiences in daily teaching. If students experience some uncertainty in their study program, it is seen that they have higher challenges and therefore higher learning success in managing uncertain situations. In these ways, students acquire methodical and social competences to deal with uncertainty and achieve productive results in an unstable working environment. If, however, the chaos is too large, students are over-strained with the situation, distracted from the actual learning targets and consequently learning results will be worse, drop-out rates will increase and they will be frustrated. The beneficial level of uncertainty depends on the student culture, academic progress and personality characteristics. The competence to deal with complex situations is essential for later professional life where unexpected circumstances occur regularly. Introducing planned chaos into lectures and lab courses has not to be confused with a missing didactic concept and is no justification for a bad preparation. Planned chaos is a demanding concept for professors to find the right implementation for an optimized learning outcome. These described findings are experienced from practical work and student evaluations. KW - Active Learning KW - Electrical engineering education KW - Planned Chaos Y1 - 2020 SN - 9788490488119 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4995/head20.2020.10989 PB - Universitat Politècnica de València ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Reindl, Andrea A1 - Meier, Hans A1 - Niemetz, Michael T1 - Software Framework for the Simulation of a Decentralized Battery Management System Consisting of Intelligent Battery Cells T2 - 2019 IEEE Student Conference on Research and Development (SCOReD), 15-17 Oct. 2019, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Malaysia N2 - Conventional battery management systems typically adopt hierarchical master-slave architectures. With regard to an uninterruptible power supply, the most significant disadvantage of central structures is the dependency of the errorfree function of the superior master board. The decentralized battery management system presented in this paper, consisting of consumers, generators and intelligent battery cells, is controlled without any central coordination authority. For this purpose, an intelligent control algorithm and a leader election algorithm are implemented on the microcontrollers of the battery cells. To test different control and election strategies, a software framework is presented for the complete simulation of the decentralized battery management system consisting of equal participants. KW - autonomous systems KW - Battery management system KW - decentralized control KW - distributed management KW - fault tolerant control KW - power system security KW - Renewable energy sources KW - uninterruptible power systems Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/SCORED.2019.8896284 SP - 75 EP - 80 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Steinkirchner, Alfons A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Niemetz, Michael T1 - Channel Coded Processor for Enhanced Safety JF - International Journal of Future Computer and Communication (IJFCC) N2 - Several concepts are known for improving processor safety, all of them having their pros and cons. Some are very resource intensive, others have limited capabilities regarding the provided error safety. In this paper we use research on channel coding of noisy communication channels known from communication theory as an analogy to random bit errors in processors. We incorporate this knowledge into processor design to suggest a new error correction concept by using channel coding in processors. The new concept of a Channel Coded Processor could provide effective implementation of redundancy by the channel coding that enables error correction. The concept could also create a complete chain of redundancy in all areas and components of the processor ranging from the code compiler through the processing hardware to the output of the information. KW - Channel coded processor concept KW - communication theory KW - safety KW - soft error Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.18178/ijfcc.2017.6.2.489 SN - 2010-3751 VL - 6 IS - 2 SP - 58 EP - 62 PB - International Association of Computer Science and Information CY - Singapore ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Niemetz, Michael T1 - Transdisciplinary Bachelor Course Connecting Business and Electrical Engineering T2 - 4th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'18), 2018, Universitat Politècnica de València, València N2 - The OTH Regensburg has a broad variety of study programs in technical, business, social and health sciences. Up to now there is no integral connection in the bachelor curricula between business and technical faculties except for some small subjects. The scope of this project is to develop a new course specialization which connects engineering and business thinking. Electrical engineering students should learn basics of business science and how managers think. Business students should vice versa learn fundamentals of engineering and how engineers solve problems. Students from both faculties work together in projects where they act like start-up companies developing a new product and bringing it into the market. It is seen a transdisciplinary effect: These projects gain innovative results between the disciplines compared to student projects of one isolated discipline. Evaluation results from the first two cohorts indicate high student satisfaction, high learning success as well as directions for further improvement. KW - Business Education KW - Engineering Education KW - Project Based Learning KW - Transdisciplinary Education Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd18.2018.8056 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Niemetz, Michael A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas T1 - Wie können wir Professorinnen und Professoren ein überfachliches Studium vermitteln? T2 - Tagungsband zum 3. Symposium zur Hochschullehre in den MINT-Fächern (MINT-Symposium), Nürnberg 25. und 26.09.2017 N2 - Die Transdisziplinarität ist als wichtiger Innovationsmotor in aller Munde, entstehen doch an den Schnittstellen und in den Zwischenräumen der etablierten Wissenschaften neue Ideen und damit die zukünftige Wertschöpfung unserer Industrie. Wir alle wurden in der Welt von gestern sozialisiert, für die meisten Tätigkeiten in der Industrie war tiefes und spezialisiertes Fachwissen essentiell und auch ausreichend. Wir wurden zu Spezialisten ausgebildet und aufgrund dieser Kompetenz in der Arbeitswelt geschätzt und auch auf unsere Professuren berufen. Doch ist dies eine ausreichende Basis, um unsere Absolventinnen und Absolventen auf die neue komplexe Welt ubiquitär verfügbaren und durchsuchbaren Wissens adäquat vorzubereiten? Können wir mit unserem Mindset aus der Vergangenheit die benötigten überfachlichen Kompetenzen für die Zukunft vermitteln? Diese selbstkritische Auseinandersetzung ist schmerzhaft, doch nur durch diese Analyse können wir unsere alten Denkmuster in engen Fachdisziplinen ablegen und zu einem neuen vernetzten Denken für eine zukunftsgerichtete Lehre kommen. Y1 - 2017 UR - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323119092_Wie_konnen_wir_Professorinnen_und_Professoren_ein_uberfachliches_Studium_vermitteln UR - https://didaktikzentrum.de/images/cwattachments/381_c76aeb3b834947e657aef252c88f6e62.pdf ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Blank, M. A1 - Brunner, Stefan A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Meier, Hans A1 - Niemetz, Michael T1 - Embedded Linux in engineering education T2 - 2015 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 18-20 March 2015, Tallinn, Estonia N2 - With the availability of cost effective embedded Linux solutions and the increasing complexity of embedded devices because of growing calculation power and communication demand, Linux is getting increasingly interesting as an operating system for the design of embedded control solutions. This is the case for almost all technical applications in electrical engineering like energy distribution systems, high level communication, signal processing or industrial automation. In the engineering master courses at the OTH Regensburg, a lecture is offered introducing students to Linux with a strong focus on embedded applications. This paper describes the concept of the lecture including the laboratory set up and gives some examples of embedded Linux projects performed by students. KW - Engineering Education KW - Linux KW - Operating systems KW - Ports (Computers) KW - Universal Serial Bus KW - Vehicles KW - Wireless communication Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON.2015.7095964 SP - 145 EP - 150 PB - IEEE ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Niemetz, Michael A1 - Hänninen, Risto A1 - Schoepe, Wilfried T1 - On the Transition from Potential Flow to Turbulence Around a Microsphere Oscillating in Superfluid 4He JF - Journal of low temperature physics N2 - The flow of superfluid around a translationally oscillating sphere, levitating without mechanical support, can either be laminar or turbulent, depending on the velocity amplitude. Below a critical velocity that scales as and is temperature independent below 1 K, the flow is laminar (potential flow). Below 0.5 K, the linear drag force is caused by ballistic phonon scattering that vanishes as until background damping, measured in the empty cell, becomes dominant for K. Increasing the velocity amplitude above leads to a transition from potential flow to turbulence, where the large turbulent drag force varies as . In a small velocity interval % above , the flow is unstable below 0.5 K, switching intermittently between both patterns. From time series recorded at constant temperature and driving force, the lifetimes of both phases are analyzed statistically. We observe metastable states of potential flow which, after a mean lifetime of 25 min, ultimately break down due to vorticity created by natural background radioactivity. The lifetimes of the turbulent phases have an exponential distribution, and the mean increases exponentially with . We investigate the frequency at which the vortex rings are shed from the sphere. Our results are compared with recent data of other authors on vortex shedding by moving a laser beam through a Bose-Einstein condensate. Finally, we show that our observed transition to turbulence belongs to the class of "supertransient chaos" where lifetimes of the turbulent states increase faster than exponentially. KW - Bose-Einstein condensates KW - Critical velocity KW - DYNAMICS KW - EINSTEIN CONDENSED GAS KW - HE-4 KW - HELIUM KW - LAMINAR KW - MK TEMPERATURES KW - ONSET KW - Oscillatory flow KW - Quantum turbulence KW - Superfluid helium KW - Vortex shedding Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-017-1745-7 VL - 187 IS - 3-4 SP - 195 EP - 220 PB - Springer Nature ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Hänninen, Risto A1 - Niemetz, Michael A1 - Schoepe, Wilfried T1 - Transition to turbulence in oscillatory superflows T2 - ETC 2013 - 14th European Turbulence Conference 2020: 2 September 2013 - 4 September 2013, Lyon, France N2 - The flow of superfluid helium-4 at very low temperatures around an oscillating microsphere has been studied in detail. At small oscillation amplitudes the drag force is linear in velocity amplitude. Above a critical velocity amplitude vc a transition from potential flow to turbulent flow is signaled by a large and nonlinear drag force that scales as (v2 - v2 c ), where vc is found to be independent of temperature (below 1 K) and of driving force. Interestingly, the critical velocity is found to scale as vc ~ √κω, where κ = h/m ≈ 10−7 m2/s (h is Planck's constant and m is the mass of a helium-4 atom) is the circulation quantum of the superfluid vortices and ω/2π is the oscillation frequency ranging from about 120 Hz to 700 Hz. We also observe slightly above vc that the flow pattern is unstable and switches intermittently between potential flow and turbulence. From time series recorded at constant drive and temperature we have investigated the statistical properties of this switching phenomenon. In this talk the universal law vc ~ √κω will be discussed in detail. It can be derived theoretically in various ways: firstly, from a qualitative but very general argument based on the "superfluid Reynolds number" Rs = vl/κ where v is the flow velocity and l is a characteristic length scale, secondly, and in more detail, from Kopnin's equation of the time dependence of the vortex line density, and, finally, we have obtained this law rigorously by dynamical scaling of the equations of motion of vortex dynamics. Y1 - 2020 UR - http://etc14.ens-lyon.fr/openconf/modules/request.php?module=oc_proceedings&action=view.php&a=Accept&id=17 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Meier, Hans A1 - Reindl, Andrea A1 - Wetzel, Daniel A1 - Niemetz, Michael T1 - Comparative Analysis of CAN, CAN FD and Ethernet for Networked Control Systems T2 - Embedded World 2021 Exhibition & Conference: 1.-5.3.2021, digital, conference proceedings N2 - Networked control systems as e.g., battery management systems, smart grids or vehicular systems, consist of sensors, actuators and controllers with a communication network in the control loop. The data rate and the reliability of the underlying communication network are key factors since delays or message losses directly affect the system control. In addition, the processor load caused by the communication is significant as it influences the calculation of system states and the setting of control parameters. The power consumption of the communication network has a further impact on the energy efficiency of the respective application. In this paper, the communication technologies Controller Area Network (CAN), Controller Area Network Flexible Data-rate (CAN FD) and Ethernet are compared in the context of networked control systems with focus on a decentralized battery management system. First, the message processing time and the processor load are measured. With regard to energy efficiency, the maximum power consumption is determined. The Bit Error Rates (BER) and the Residual Error Rates (RER) are calculated to evaluate the reliability. Finally, the receive FIFO load under high traffic conditions is examined. Index Terms—Networked control systems, decentralized battery management system, microcontrollers, communication systems, Ethernet, Controller Area Network (CAN), Controller Area Network Flexible Data-rate (CAN FD) energy efficiency, energy consumption, bit error rate, residual error rate, processor load. Y1 - 2021 UR - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354995738_Comparative_Analysis_of_CAN_CAN_FD_and_Ethernet_for_Networked_Control_Systems/link/615706baa6fae644fbb85b95/download PB - WEKA Fachmedien ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Körner, Patrick A1 - Reindl, Andrea A1 - Meier, Hans A1 - Niemetz, Michael T1 - A Theoretical Comparison of Different Virtual Synchronous Generator Implementations on Inverters T2 - 2022 24th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE'22 ECCE Europe): 05-09 September 2022, Hannover, Germany N2 - The goal to overcome the global climate crisis leads to a rising demand for the usage of Renewable Energy Sources (RES). Decentralized control strategies are needed to allow the integration of RES into the grid. The Virtual Synchronous Generator (VSG) is proposed as a method to add virtual inertia to the grid by emulating the rotating mass of a Synchronous Generator (SG) on the control algorithm of an inverter. This paper presents the VSG control structure as well as the mathematical description in a unified form. Due to the fact that classical droop control can be seen as a special form of the VSG, their correlation is highlighted by evaluating the steady state output characteristics of the inverter. Furthermore, a theoretical comparison between different VSG topologies, including the VISMA-Method 2 and the synchronverter, is given. In order to achieve better voltage stability, principles to add virtual impedance to the inverter's output are described. Y1 - 2022 UR - https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9907497 PB - IEEE ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Niemetz, Michael T1 - Ideas on Digitally Supported Individualization of Teaching and Learning for Evolving Competency Requirements T2 - Ninth International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd 23), València, June 19, 2023 – June 22, 2023 N2 - The world is changing rapidly, mainly due to the digitalization of all areas of living. A huge amount of information is accessible via the Internet, and since it is no longer possible for individual humans to keep track of it, artificial intelligence (AI) is analyzing this data. In this rapidly changing world, students have to be educated for a successful career during their whole working life. These boundary conditions lead to completely new challenges for the education of students that are unprecedented in this form. Digitalization in education can help to cope with these challenges but can only be a means, not a goal. Personal interaction with students remains the most important task in education to address individual weaknesses and further develop strengths and talents. With the increasing amount of openly available information and the consequently increasing diversity of experiences within the group of students, differentiation is advancing to become the key to successful education. Digitization can help with this challenging task and support communication between students and their experienced instructors. But computers cannot replace human interaction and attempts to improve teaching efficiency by replacing this communication with electronic means endangers the learning success for complex concepts. This article analyzes education demands and possibilities for digitally supported teaching and learning. KW - Digitalization KW - higher education KW - student competencies KW - differentiation Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd23.2023.16232 SN - 2603-5871 SP - 1399 EP - 1406 PB - Universitat Polit`ecnica de Val`encia ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Reindl, Andrea A1 - Wetzel, Daniel A1 - Niemetz, Michael A1 - Meier, Hans T1 - Leader Election in a Distributed CAN-Based Multi-Microcontroller System T2 - 2023 3rd International Conference on Electrical, Computer, Communications and Mechatronics Engineering (ICECCME), 19-21 July 2023, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain N2 - In a distributed system, functionally equivalent nodes work together to form a system with improved availability, reliability and fault tolerance. Thereby, the purpose is to achieve a common control objective. As multiple components cooperate to accomplish tasks, coordination between them is required. Electing a node as the temporary leader can be a possible solution to perform coordination. This work presents a self-stabilizing algorithm for the election of a leader in dynamically reconfigurable bus topology-based broadcast systems with a message and time complexity of O(1). The election is performed dynamically, i.e., not only when the leader node fails, and is criterion-based. The criterion used is a performance related value which evaluates the properties of the node regarding the ability to perform the tasks of the leader. The increased demands on the leader are taken into account and a re-election is started when the criterion value drops below a predefined level. The goal here is to distribute the load more evenly and to reduce the probability of failure due to overload of individual nodes. For improved system availability and reduced fault rates, a management level consisting of leader, assistant and co-assistant is introduced. This reduces the number of required messages and the duration in case of non-initial election. For further reduction of required messages to uniquely determine a leader, the CAN protocol is exploited. The proposed algorithm selects a node with an improved failure rate and a reduced message and hence time complexity while satisfying the safety and termination constraints. The operation of the algorithm is validated using a hardware test setup. KW - broadcast communication KW - computational complexity KW - controller area networks KW - coordination KW - decentralized applications KW - distributed systems KW - failure analysis KW - Fault tolerance KW - fault tolerant computing KW - Fault tolerant systems KW - Hardware KW - Heuristic algorithms KW - Leader election KW - load balancing KW - Mechatronics KW - message complexity KW - microcontrollers KW - performance related election KW - probability KW - Protocols KW - self-stabilization KW - telecommunication network topology KW - Voting Y1 - 2023 SN - 979-8-3503-2297-2 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/ICECCME57830.2023.10252250 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - IEEE CY - Piscataway, NJ, USA ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Reindl, Andrea A1 - Lausser, Florian A1 - Eriksson, Lars A1 - Park, Sangyoung A1 - Niemetz, Michael A1 - Meier, Hans ED - Pinker, Jiří T1 - Control Oriented Mathematical Modeling of a Bidirectional DC-DC Converter - Part 1: Buck Mode T2 - 28th International Conference on Applied Electronics (AE) 2023, Pilsen, 6-7 September 2023 N2 - Parallel connection of different batteries equipped with bidirectional DC-DC converters offers an increase of the total storage capacity, the provision of higher currents and an improvement of reliability and system availability. To share the load current among the DC-DC converters while maintaining the safe operating range of the batteries, appropriate controllers are needed. The basis for the design of these control approaches requires knowledge of both the static and dynamic characteristics of the DC-DC converter used. In this paper, the small signal analysis of a DC-DC converter in buck mode is shown using the circuit averaging technique. The paper gives an overview of all required transfer functions:. The control and line to output transfer functions for CCM and DCM relevant for average current mode control as well as for voltage control are derived and their poles and zeros are determined. This provides the basis for stability consideration, analysis of the overall control structure and controller design. KW - Analytical models KW - Average modeling KW - Batteries KW - bidirectional dc-dc converter KW - buck mode KW - circuit-averaging technique KW - continuous conduction mode KW - DC-DC power converters KW - derivation of transfer functions KW - discontinuous conduction mode KW - half-bridge KW - Mathematical models KW - Reliability KW - Signal analysis KW - small signal analysis KW - Stability analysis Y1 - 2023 SN - 979-8-3503-3554-5 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/AE58099.2023.10274168 SP - 1 EP - 7 PB - University of West Bohemia CY - Pilsen ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Niemetz, Michael T1 - Analysis and Improvement of Engineering Exams Toward Competence Orientation by Using an AI Chatbot T2 - Towards a Hybrid, Flexible and Socially Engaged Higher Education: Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL2023), Volume 1 N2 - ChatGPT is currently one of the most advanced general chatbots. This development leads to diverse challenges in higher education, like new forms of teaching and learning, additional exam methods, new possibilities for plagiarism, and many more topics. On the other side with the development of advanced AI tools, pure knowledge will be less and less important, and demands from industry will change toward graduates with higher competencies. Education has therefore to be changed from knowledge-centered toward competence centered. The goal of this article is to use ChatGPT for analyzing and improving the competence orientation of exams in engineering education. The authors use ChatGPT to analyze exams from different engineering subjects to evaluate the performance of this chatbot and draw conclusions about the competence orientation of the tested exams. The obtained information is used to develop ideas for increasing the competence orientation of exams. From this analysis, it is visible that ChatGPT gives good performance mainly where knowledge is tested. It has, however, much more problems with transfer questions or tasks where students need creativity or complex insights for finding new solutions. Based on this result, exams and also lectures can be optimized toward competence orientation. KW - Engineering education KW - Competence orientation KW - Exam analysis KW - AI chatbot KW - ChatGPT Y1 - 2024 SN - 9783031519789 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51979-6_42 SN - 2367-3370 SP - 403 EP - 411 PB - Springer Nature CY - Cham ER -