Table of Contents

VREL #7: RoofTop Thermo Laboratory - intelligent house and heating management

The laboratory is located at Silesian Technical University, Poland, Gliwice on the roof of building at Akademicka street number 16. The roof is 38 meters above ground level. (255 meters above sea level). It is one of the highest places in the nearest area.

Introduction

The lab is a model of a small house. The house can be rotated around its vertical axis. A structure of walls allows changing infrared absorption factor using curtains driven by servomotors.

Prerequisites

User need know:

Technical details

House is a cube with dimensions 50x50x50 cm. Every wall is shadowed by a shutter. Sides of the slats have different colours: white and black. Using servomotors is possible to change colour and angle slats which are lighted for sunlight. Rotating whole house increase possibility of control configuration house versus sunlight direction. Model is shielded against directly rain and bird droppings using the small roof.

Sensors

The IP camera provides the overview which can be used for verification of position house and slats. Independent camera gives information about actual weather.

The house is equipped with many sensors temperature. They allow check temperature: inside of the house (at centre point), the temperature of every wall (separately) and the temperature of ambient air. The sensor of humidity is useful for modelling the heating house.

Actuators

The user can control the lab with five servomotors. With using PWM, the user can realize the change of slats position (4 actuators) and house rotation (1 actuator).

Software, libraries and externals

Provide the list of software, software libraries and external resources (i.e. files) necessary during code development. Please note, write here only common for all hands-on-labs scenarios (there is a relevant section in scenario template. Remove this section if empty.

Communication

Describe communication if it is implemented and sealed (not intended to be implemented by students, or provided i.e. as default code). Present data flow. Describe protocols and details i.e. key-value pairs, etc. Provide how exceptions are handled.

Limits

At the same time, only one user can be programming the controller, although analysing the signal by other users makes sense. Model is provided to continuously work, with two service breaks (a few hours) per year.

Support

Give some information about how to access help, how to get support in case of the trouble etc.