Reliable Powerdown for Industrial Drives (R-PODID)
R-PODID (Reliable Powerdown for Industrial Drives) aims to develop an automated, short-term fault-prediction for electric drives, power modules, and power devices, that can be integrated into power converters. Thereby, electrical and mechanical faults of machines and of the power converters driving them will become predictable within a limited prediction horizon. This will enable a power-saving shutdown of a larger number of production machines during idle times, because a looming failure during the next power-on cycle can be reliably foreseen. It will also enable reliable mitigation of dangerous faults in applications using modern power-devices like silicon-carbide and III/V-semiconductor devices like gallium-nitride.
The R-PODID Project (Reliable Powerdown for Industrial Drives) brings together 33 partners from 11 countries. The consortium includes leading European research institutions (e.g., University of Bologna, Fraunhofer, TU Delft, TU Eindhoven, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Brno University of Technology) in collaboration with major industrial companies (e.g., AVL List, ST Microelectronics) and highly innovative European SMEs.
The project's goal is to develop an automated short-term fault prediction system for electric drives, power modules, and power devices, which can be integrated into power converters. The work at Brno University of Technology (BUT) is being carried out in collaboration with CEITEC BUT and BUT Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication.
The BUT team focuses on two main areas:
The first one is developing a diagnostic system for large groups of industrial drives.
As part of this effort, a neural network-based drive model is being developed to detect both mechanical and electrical motor failures. Simultaneously, a custom hardware solution is being designed for an intelligent data concentrator, which will collect data from a large number of wired and wireless sensors while also gathering data from the converter via ProfiNet. The system will pre-process data and transmit it via a private 5G network to a high-performance computing (HPC) system, where artificial intelligence will analyze the data.
The second on is research and development of an innovative drive for test facilities. This drive will feature enhanced fault tolerance and fault prediction capabilities. The objective is to design and build a fully functional prototype of a drive system incorporating two multiphase asynchronous motors with a power output of 400 kW. These motors will have the ability to electronically switch the number of poles during operation, eliminating the need for a mechanical gearbox.
This technology is expected to increase the flexibility, compactness, and reliability of the entire system.
Projekt R-PODID (Reliable Powerdown for Industrial Drives) sdružuje 33 partnerů z 11 zemí. V konsorciu spolupracují přední evropská výzkumná pracoviště (např. University of Bologna, Fraunhofer, TU Delft, TU Eindhoven, Johanes Kepler University Linz, Vysoké učení technické v Brně) s řadou vedoucích průmyslových firem (např. AVL List, ST Microelectronics) a evropskými vysoce inovativními SME.
HEU