A hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) system is having the capability to convert solar energy to both electricity and thermal energy simultaneously and these systems can use to accomplish the energy demand of buildings. Performance analysis of such systems becomes essential to design PV/T systems matching with the operating conditions. It is essential to extend the energy flow analysis used in this regard considering economic limitations especially for urban applications. In this study a practical method to accomplish the energy demand of a building from a PV/T system is proposed and evaluated through a thermo-economic model. The performance of the PV/T collector is analyzed under different operating conditions in Sri Lanka. The responses of energy storage and local grid according to demand variations of the building are evaluated considering the economic aspects. Life cycle cost of the PV/T system is computed to assess the economic viability of harnessing energy from solar energy. Furthermore, the capability of deploying PVT technique and the potential to harvest solar energy in Sri Lanka is evaluated through conducting case studies for different locations.
Relative localization between autonomous robots without infrastructure is crucial to achieve their navigation, path planning, and formation in many applications, such as emergency response, where acquiring a prior knowledge of the environment is not possible. The traditional Ultra-WideBand (UWB)-based approach provides a good estimation of the distance between the robots, but obtaining the relative pose (including the displacement and orientation) remains challenging. We propose an approach to estimate the relative pose between a group of robots by equipping each robot with multiple UWB ranging nodes. We determine the pose between two robots by minimizing the residual error of the ranging measurements from all UWB nodes. To improve the localization accuracy, we propose to utilize the odometry constraints through a sliding window-based optimization. The optimized pose is then fused with the odometry in a particle filtering for pose tracking among a group of mobile robots. We have conducted extensive experiments to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) enables autonomous robots to navigate and execute their tasks through unknown environments. However, performing SLAM in large environments with a single robot is not efficient, and visual or LiDARbased SLAM requires feature extraction and matching algorithms, which are computationally expensive. In this paper, we present a collaborative SLAM approach with multiple robots using the pervasive WiFi radio signals. A centralized solution is proposed to optimize the trajectory based on the odometry and radio fingerprints collected from multiple robots. To improve the localization accuracy, a novel similarity model is introduced that combines received signal strength (RSS) and detection likelihood of an access point (AP). We perform extensive experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed similarity model and collaborative SLAM framework.
Solar PVT panels are getting popular for wider spectrum of applications for concurrent heat and power generation (CHP). These panels can provide the heating demand of buildings while generating electricity which becomes ideal for building applications of urban energy systems. Energy flow analysis of such panels and performance analysis of such systems becomes essential to design PVT systems matching with the operating conditions. A number of studies have used both theoretical and experimental methods to optimize PVT. However, this task is challenging due to interrelation of CHP production based on two different phenomena where classical optimization methods cannot be applied directly. Hence basic performance analysis considering primary design parameters plays a major role. In this study, a computational model is developed to evaluate sensitivity of design, operating and climatic parameters for a hybrid PVT system and to analyze the performances of PVT for five different design configurations. Five main configurations of the PVT system are considered based on the heat transfer fluid and the arrangements of glass and tedlar layers of PVT collector. This study presents comprehensive performance analysis conducted to evaluate the sensitivity of mass flow rate and working fluid temperature for the five different design configurations of PVT panels. Results show that glass-tedlar water collector performs better when compared to other configurations. Subsequently, the sensitivity of wind speed and solar irradiation is evaluated. The behavior of thermal and electrical efficiencies is analyzed at different wind speed and solar irradiation levels for a range of mass flow rates and working fluid temperatures. Important conclusions on the performance of PVT panels are given based on this detailed analysis.
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