Designing a Hardware Controller
Used for controlling a Power Grid simulation
M. De Rop (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
J.M. Ketelaars (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
Simon H. Tindemans – Mentor (TU Delft - Intelligent Electrical Power Grids)
R.N. Koornneef – Mentor (TU Delft - ESP LAB)
N.K. Panda – Mentor (TU Delft - Intelligent Electrical Power Grids)
N.P. van der Meijs – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Signal Processing Systems)
M. Shahraki Moghaddam – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Computer Engineering)
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Abstract
As part of making a power grid simulator, a hardware controller is needed. This thesis specifically describes the design of such a controller. The objective is to design it in such a way that it is self-explanatory and interactive. Therefore, the following user controls and feedback are made possible. A small solar panel makes it possible to provide input for a solar generator in the simulation. A slider gives input for a wind farm in the simulation. This is visualized by adding a small physical turbine to the hardware, going faster or slower based on the input.
A small knob to go back or forward in the simulation, if pressed, pauses or resumes the time.
A RGB LED indicates the situation on the grid. Based on the loading of transmission lines, the color of the LED changes. These user-control actions and feedback from the simulation are processed on an Arduino Mega Rev3 development board. This uses an ATMega2560 microcontroller. To interact with the simulation, bidirectional serial communication is needed between the Arduino and the computer running the simulation with the Godot game engine. These components are implemented on a PCB to finalize the design.