In its endeavour to support R&D for Industrial Applications and to address the needs of the core industrial sectors the division supports a number of national collaborative projects at Research/Academic Institutions and Industries, Some examples of Ongoing and completed  Projects are the following:  

NaMPET

National Mission of Power Electronics Technology (NaMPET) at CDAC, Thiruvananthapuram (www.nampet.org)

NaMPET as a mission programme was launched in November, 2004 as first large initiative by DIT in the area of power electronics for facilitating research, development, deployemnt and commercialisation of power electronics technology by enhancing the indigenous R&D expertise and infrastructure in the country. NaMPET phase-I programme  was completed in August, 2011. Some of the advanced power electronics technology developed under NaMPET are listed below:

• Full Spectrum Simulator, a tool for designing, operating and understanding complex systems encountered in power systems.
• Matrix Converter is as an “all silicon” solution for AC-AC conversion
• Universal Front End for Micro Generators  for converting the power output from micro generators into usable voltage and frequency.
• IGBT Gate Drivers highly versatile single channel/ dual channel gate drivers for IGBTs up to 1700 Volts and 1200 A ratings with electrical or fiber optics interface.
• Hall Effect based Current Sensors the components for DC/AC current measurements in industrial applications.

A typical example of joint funded 2 X 500 KVA STATCOM project implemented at Techno Park, Trivandrum as shown below:

 

NaMPET phase-I project has formally been closed. Following the success of initial phase the NaMPET Phase-II has been initiated with an objectives of strengthning the power electronics technology base in the country by carrying out a multitude of activities.

ASTeC

Automation Systems Technology Centre (ASTeC) at CDAC, Thiruvananthapuram. (www.astec.org.in)

Automation Systems Technology Centre (ASTeC) programme was launched by DIT in April, 2007 with a broad vision of undertaking R&D in Automation Technology area to strengthen technical skills in the  automation technologies with a particular emphasis on the Hardware development contributing to design lead automation system development. The programme is being implemented through collobarative efforts by CDAC, Thiruvananthapuram as a nodal agency with participating institutes such as IISc, Bangalore, IIT, Kharagpur and MIT, Chennai.  An embedded Centre of Excellence has been created at CDAC, Thiruvananthapuram to launch Technology Development Research Programme in four pillars of automation research viz. Perception, Control, Learning and Systems. Necessary infrastructure development for this has already been completed at the nodal Centre. A total of 11 technology development projects as building blocks of automation systems have been initiated under ASTeC in the areas of Perception, Control, Learning and Systems. The following products have been developed, tested  and are ready for technology transfer:

• Multi Loop Controller (iSMART)- industrial System Monitoring Autonomous Remote Terminal is a stand alone powerful controller capable of acquiring analog and digial inputs, processing them and simultaneously controlling 2/4 loops. It is equiped with communication mechanisms such as IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi), high speed USB interface, IEEE 802.3.10/ 100 Mpbs Ethernet interface and conmfigurable RS 232/ RS 485.

• Low Power Controller (iLoC)- Industrial Low Power Controller (iLoC) is a solar powered stand alone module housed in an iP65 enclosure.  iLoC enables to monitor a remote site when it is impractical or too expensive to run electrical power to that location.  It is capable of acquiring analog inputs, digital input/output and having programmable scan interval.  The architecture combined with low power modes and separate switching regulators for peripherals is to achieve extended battery life especially for uninterrupted remote applications.  It is equipped with wireless communication interfaces such as IEEE 802.15.4 (Zigbee), IEEE 802.11b/g (Wi-Fi, only for powered conditions) and configurable RS 232/ RS485. Low Power Controller embeds Tiny OS, which is designed for low powered devices with networking capabilities and resources-constrained devices. 

• Common Communication Gatway (iGate): iGate is an industrial communication Gateway module to handle various open industrial protocols like Modbus, DNP 3.0etc and CDAC proprietary DACS protocol.  It communicates to the outside world through hardware interfaces like RS232/RS422/RS485, Ethernet, USB, Wi-Fi & ZigBee.  It is aimed to address the lack of interoperability in the current industrial setup.  It is designed to act as a middleware node that will allow seamless protocol conversion as well as management among all the end nodes, employing different physical interfaces and protocols for communication. 

iGate-Communication Interface

• Wireless Sensor Nodes(iWiSe): The industrial Wireless Sensor is an ultra low power Wireless Sensor Node capable of acquiring and processing signals from any industrial sensor and transmit the information wirelessly to a base station unit for monitoring and control.  iWise collects field data, in the form of analog and digital signals, from sensors in the industrial environment and relays it to the base station with an on-board 2,4 GHz IEEE 802.15.4 low power RF transceiver, the industrial Wireless Sensor aims at addressing the increasing demand for wireless devices in Industrial Automation area owing to lesser wiring, ease of deployment, enhanced flexibility, increased safety and decreased maintenance cost.  iWise is provided with an ingress protection of IP65, which facilitates operation in harsh outdoor environments.  iWise also provides excellent operation in the industrial environment with an operating temperature range of –40 to +85 degree Centigrade. 

iWiSe-Wireless sensor node

• Wireless Base Station (iWase): The industrial Wireless Base Station is a standalone panel mountable device which acquires and process sensor values from sensors nodes in a wireless sensor network and relay the information to a central monitoring station. iWase  built around the powerful AT91SAM9XE512 ARM9 controller, acquires radio packets from wireless nodes using a 2.4 GHz IEE 802.12.4 RF transceiver and relay the information to a SCADA network or a central monitoring station using Ethernet interface or to a remote monitoring station using GSM/GPRS interface. The iWase also embeds a GPS receiver to provide location and time information to nodes in the network. IWase has an ingress protection of IP 65, which facilitates operation in harse outdoor environment. IWase alos provides excellent operation in industrial environment with an operating temperature range of –40 to + 85 degree  Centigrade.

• Colour Sensing System (iCoSS): The industrial Colour Sensor System is a handheld standalone unit that is capable of idenfying and  measuring different colours.  The seonsor system can be used for reflective and refractive materials by attaching separate sensor modules. Unlike the traditional colour sensor’s “match/no-match” output  condition, this system is desinged with sophisticated and stable algorithms which outputs RGB and CIE-L*a*b* values. 

iCoss-Colour Sensor System

• SCADA/ HMI Software (iROSE): industrial Range Open SCADA SoftwarE addresses the need for scalable, flexible and extensible SCADA software.  It is an open and standards bases SCADA that provides easier configuration and installation capabilities.  iROSE is a suite of three packages:

            iFACE (industrial Flexible Automation Control Engine)
            iDLog (industrial Data Logger) and
            iROC (industrial Remote Configuration). 

• iFACE is an ease-to-use, full featured web based HMI that enables full control and visualisation capabilities over intranet.  iFACE runs on any web Browser that supports Adobe Flash Player V.10.

            iDLog logs real time tag values at pre-defined intervals. 

• iROC is used to configure iSMART and iCon, the industrial controllers, which support DACS (proprietary protocol) developed by CDAC (T). Third Party devices, which support Modbus TCP, DNP3 TCP, IEC60870-5-104, can also be configured.

• Simulation Platform (iSimp):  industrial Simulation Platform – with the developments in information technology, there has been a totally new approach to the teaching, developing and experimenting with Advanced Control Algorithms for Process Control.  Today, process models developed in Object Oriented Modelling languages are widely used to simulate the real processes and rigorously design and test appropriate control systems.  In today’s modern Plant Automation and Control Systems, Simulation Platforms is an integral part of the total system. ISimp has been developed to address these requirements with the technical know-how of Linkoping University, Sweden.  This feature is provided to learn the process behaviour on-line during the normal operation of the plant and improve the performance of the controllers.  An accurate simulation model allows operators to train under ‘live’ conditions without exposing the plant to the consequences of their mistakes.

• Real Time Expert System (iRESS): industrial Real time Expert System Shell) is an integrated software tool which can be used by system developers and domain experts to develop Knowledge-based systems.  This tool allows creation of Knowledge Base by encoding and expert’s knowledge as a set of rules and frames and does inference using built in backward or forward chaining inference engine.  The tool is designed to interface with external SCADA system via plug-in modules, which support standards like OPC.  It also supports explanation facilities.  Applications developed with iRESS are used in problem solving and decision-making in a particular domain.

 

ITS

ITS endeavour for Indian cities was initiated in October, 2009 as a collaborative research project to make India a major player in the field of electronics & IT technologies required for advanced traffic management and control system. As part of this project an embedded Centre of Excellence on ITS has been created at CDAC, Thiruvananthapuram, which would function as a national resource centre in the country. Towards this objective, necessary infrastructure has been created through this project at the Nodal Centre. 

As part of this programme eight sub projects have been taken up for implementation by CDAC, Thiruvananthapuram (nodal agency) with IITs(Chennai and Mumbai ) and IIM, Kolkata as the other participating agencies. The following eight sub projects initiated are under different stages of  development and demonstration through field implementation to the end users:

• Wireless Traffic Control System (Completed and ready for TOT)
• Second generation Area Traffic Control System (CoSiCoSt-2G)
• Real-time Traffic Counting and Monitoring System
• Intelligent Parking lot Management System (Completed and ready for TOT)
• Advanced Traveler Information System for Indian Cities
• Intelligent Transit Trip Planner and Real Time Route Information
• Red-light Violation Detection System
• An intelligent Traffic Congestion Management System using RFID (completed)

After their successful demonstration in the field sites to the end users, whereever possible, these technologies will be made available to the interested industries for their commercial exploitation.

eAgriEn Project

Electronics for Agriculture & Environment (e-AGRIEN) project has been initiated in March, 2010 at C-DAC, Kolkata with the objective:

• To set-up an integrated facility for advanced research in the multi-disciplinary field of Agri-Electronics leading to a) technology demonstrators and b) indigenous electronics and IT-based products and services for Indian Agricultural community.
• To provide IT based services and consultancy to agricultural entrepreneurs, researchers and other stakeholders on specialized solutions developed under the aegis of the center.
• To conduct special training programme on advanced agri-tech topics.
• To promote national and international level networking, collaboration and alliances in the field of agri-electronics.

The following eight collaborative sub projects initiated are under different stages of development, field trials and implementation by CDAC Kolkata as nodal agency:

• Establishment of the eAgriEn R&D Infrastructure at C- DAC, Kolkata.
• Development of Electronic Nose for monitoring Industrial Obnoxious Odorous Constituents generated from Pulp and Paper industries with NEERI, Nagpur
• Web Enabled Access of Agricultural Information with BIRSA Agriculture University, Ranchi
• Application of Digital Image Processing Technologies in Tasar Sericulture with PRADAN, Jharkhand
• Development of Handheld E – Nose with Sensor Hub Kolkata
• Developing tools for a Decision Support System Framework for Tea Production System using a Wireless Sensors Network (WSN) with Tea Research Association, Jorhat
• Development of Membrane Electrode Array Based Novel Sensing System for Rapid Taste Characterization of Food and Agro Produces with IIT Kharagpur
• Electronic Olfaction for Biotechnology Applications with PESIT Bangalore

For more details: http://eagrien.cdackolkata.in/

Design and Development of Climate Control System for Greenhouses used in Agri-Research ” to be implemented by CDAC, Mohali.

The objective of the project is developing indigenous technology for precise control of climatic parameters such as temperature, humidity, light, carbon dioxide etc., along with controlled irrigation and fertigation in a research- Greenhouse. The project is being implemented by CDAC, Mohali in collaboration with National Agri-food Biotechnology Institute. This will help in studying the effects of climatic changes on various crop varieties.

New Projects

Four new projects have been initiated on Development of an Embedded System for On-board Assessment of the Level of Alertness in Human Driver to be implemnted by IIT, Kharagpur, Design and Development of Climate Controlled System for Greenhouses used in Agri-Research” to be implemented by CDAC, Mohali,  Autonomic Real Time Multiprotocol Gateway for power utilities by CDAC, Bangalore and NaMPET Phase-II at CDAC, Thiruvanathapuram.