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TECHNOLOGYSPOTLIGHT

Advances in technology across industry

Fortum participating in developing electric aviation in Finland

Fortum is participating in the Helsinki Electric Airplane Association’s project that is testing an electrically-powered airplane. The first serial produced electric airplane purchased in Finland, the Pipistrel Alpha Electro, is scheduled to take its maiden flight in Finland on 31 July 2018 at 10am at the Helsinki-Malmi Airport.

“We believe that the electrification of transportation is one of the most effective ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. We have been a pioneer in the development and expansion of the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles in the Nordic countries. Now we want to apply the experience we’ve gained about the EV charging infrastructure in the development of the rapidly evolving electric aviation,” says Heli Antila, chief technology officer, Fortum.

The use of electricity in aviation reduces emissions into the atmosphere and noise around airports. The solution is to use fully electric motors in small airplanes and hybrid technology in bigger passenger airplanes. In addition to collecting research data, the Pipistrel Alpha Electro electric airplane will be used diversely in pilot training. Visit: www.fortum.com

Heason Technology delivers EtherCAT motion solution for Swift TG’s novel WindSurf Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Swift TG Energy Scotland Ltd (STGES), the renewables technology division of the SWIFT TG Group, has developed an innovative active-pitch Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) called WindSurf – where multi-axis EtherCAT motion control executes CFD derived algorithms to dynamically position aerofoil blades in real-time – offering increased efficiency and operability over similar technologies, as well as challenging the location siting limitations of the Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT).

Heason Technology, the leading motion systems designer and manufacturer, has worked closely with STGES’s engineers from the initial WindSurf design concept and through the project’s development stages – providing prototype systems and application support for a tightly synchronised six-axis EtherCAT system that manages all of the motion control, maths functions and I/O interfacing as a single stand-alone solution.

The basics for the WindSurf VAWT comprises five individual 6 metre-high vertical aerofoils that are arranged and supported on upper and lower ‘spider arms’ that drive the generator. Each aerofoil’s angular pitch position is referenced and synchronised to the overall assembly’s rotation axis to create maximum rotation of the VAWT. Imagine Ferris wheel physics but rather than the passive geometry of other VAWTs, where the blades assume position through wind pressure, the WindSurf’s aerofoils are positioned independently by a direct-drive servo motor and encoder to determine optimal pitch. Furthermore, the angular position for each aerofoil is calculated and dynamically set in real-time from the motion controller using the complex algorithms predetermined by the STGES’s CFD software modelled control strategy. Visit: www.swifttgenergy.com

towards an authentically human intelligent habitat

What information is it possible and desirable to share? What future legislative framework for these data is required? Organised by the CNRS, Montpellier University, and Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 University, the Human at Home (HUT) project will look into these questions thanks to an ‘observatory apartment’ that will be inhabited from October 2018.

In autumn 2018, two volunteer students will move into an ‘observatory apartment’, which will be studied by around 60 researchers. The questions that these legal experts, economists, electronics engineers, computer scientists, architects, and specialists in language, behaviour, marketing, and health are asking can only be explored in a meaningful way by studying a permanent living space. While they will not set foot in the apartment, the researchers will exploit the precious data produced by the ‘HUTmates’.

In practical terms, pressure sensors in the floors and movement sensors in some rooms will be used to evaluate the occupants’ movements and actions in their living space. This information may be of interest to both architects (to identify any areas that are avoided by the inhabitants, and to optimize layout) and health professionals (movements and postures can be indicators of wellbeing or discomfort). Sensors for pollution, for the opening of cupboards and windows, as well as for water and electricity use will make it possible, for instance, to imagine new services. Linguists and cognitive scientists will study the occupants’ interactions with so-called ‘intelligent’ systems.

The first residents will move out of the apartment in summer 2019. The house will then be ‘reformatted’ according to the first results and new avenues of research, before again being offered for free to two other volunteer students. Visit: www.cnrs.fr