Sanda Victorinne Paturca

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Universitatea Națională de Știință și Tehnologie Politehnica București

This article highlights some key benefits of involving bioengineering students in hands-on projects developed within a robotics laboratory. The initiative of creating such a laboratory lays the groundwork for educational team projects that are finalized with realistic robotic devices. Students are given the opportunity to acquire basic knowledge ab...

This paper shares the author's approach and experience in conducting a new laboratory for bioengineering undergraduates, suitable for remote working (supervising and students’ activity), imposed by the pandemic. The laboratory was conceived as project-oriented, with the intent of offering the students a practical engineering approach, focused on so...

The experimental stand created is made for charging, testing and monitoring the processes that take place at a drone, in a static and also dynamic manner. On this platform we have developed, created and tested various kinds of sensors, and charging methods, rechargeable batteries, multicopper drones, automatically without disconnecting or disassemb...

This paper presents a Robotics Laboratory conceived for Bioengineering students. The laboratory work is structured in two stages - in the first one, students use simulators and the ready-to-use platforms and in the second stage, which is structured as a project, they are involved in carrying out their own platforms. The solutions chosen for the dev...

The increasing demand for sensitive electrochemical sensors in various medical and industrial applications promotes the fabrication of novel sensing materials with improved electrocatalytic and analytical performances. This work deals with the development of a composite material based on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) embedded in poly(3,4-ethylenedioxy...

This paper presents the implementation of a new teaching methodology for easing the migration of traditional engineering laboratory practice classes to modern web-based labs. The proposed method is inspired by an on-line platform i.e. Khan Academy and uses an objective oriented approach. Unlike other methods, that are based on written support, now...

The field of underwater robotics has reached an impressive technological momentum over the past decades by merging areas such as electrical, mechanical and systems engineering. A particular interest is presented by autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), given the progress in the implementation of revolutionary technologies to overcome the challenges...

e-Learning, with its various aspects, represents a major trend in education. This paper presents a solution to extend the traditional multiple choice tests to effectively graphic design of calculus equations for an electric workshop. Equation built procedure was augmented using animated pedagogical agents to increase the effectiveness of learning a...

This paper presents the hardware and software structures of a proposed data acquisition and processing system, which is designated to perform an automated inspection of roads pavement condition. The system was designed to gather information from multiple sources - laser-based imaging systems for road profiling, cameras for environmental images, pro...

This paper presents a Robotics laboratory conceived for the Electrical Engineering students. The laboratory work comprises two stages - a preliminary one, in which they apply Robotics concepts by means of ready to use platforms, and a second one, when the students are engaged in a complex project, whose goal is to develop their own platform. There...

A solution to improve the lower overall photo-voltaic panel efficiency is to provide it with a forced cooling system. In this way a hybrid conversion device is derived and electric and thermal energies are obtained simultaneously. To model such system, two major and different components should be considered: solar cells and cooling radiator. The ma...

This paper presents an implementation of Direct Torque and Flux Control (DTC) scheme for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) drive, focusing on the development of the digital control. The control was designed so that to allow accurate sampling related to control update time, considering in addition a measurement scheme common to the low power...

NOVELTY - The invention relates to a modular system as an autonomous container meant for refugee camps and for other insular installations and to a method for using the modular system. According to the invention, the modular system comprises a power subsystem (1), a communication subsystem (9) which takes over internal and external voice and data c...

This paper deals with a new coaxial linear permanent magnet motor. For a designed physical model of this motor, the representative magnetic spectrums are determined: the spectrum of the excitation field provided by cylindrical permanent magnet, and the spectrum of total magnetic field given by superposition of permanent magnet field and of energizi...

This paper presents a project-oriented laboratory. It is intended to provide an educational and research environment that stimulates innovative solutions in the growing field of Bioengineering. The authors took the advantages of the emerging technology and the increasing popularity of wearable biomonitoring devices, to teach students the key elemen...

This paper describes a system for power supply, monitoring, control and communication for isolated temporary habitats. The system described consists in six modules and offers all the necessary equipment in order to operate a fully functional camp.

Applications in Field Robotics often require synchronous acquiring various environment information using multiple sensors and devices, including digital cameras. For such applications, this paper proposes a software architecture that is designed to cope with large amount of mixed type data, acquired with various sample times, and gathered from mult...

Research in e-Learning, Micro Learning and all activities where ITC and multimedia are implied in the process of learning brought a significant debate on the utility of narration in the process. Far from intended to solve this discussion, this paper is about the use of animated agents in presentation integrated with LabVIEW with the benefit of Data...

This paper presents relevant aspects regarding the discrete-time implementation of Direct Torque Control (DTC), in such a manner so that computation time does not alter the promptness of the voltage command in response to the estimated magnetic flux and torque. It is based on the calculation of the stator magnetic flux and torque using both instant...

This paper presents a mobile platform designed and built by the authors for testing the electric traction motors in real operating conditions. There are presented the solutions chosen for the mechanical part, the hardware and software related to the electric drive system and the monitoring system.

Direct Torque Control (DTC) is a high dynamic control strategy used in AC motor drives. Originally, developed for analogue implementation, it is characterised by fast torque response and large torque slopes, achieved by direct usage of voltage inverter phasors, which are applied integrally and with no delay, in order to keep the torque and stator f...

This paper presents two methods for reducing the torque ripple of the conventional Direct Torque Control (DTC) of induction motor drives. The methods were implemented on a Digital Signal Controller, their effectiveness was evaluated for a set of motor operating points and the experimental results are comparatively presented.

In this paper we present a suite of algorithms for determining the possible trajectories of an autonomous robot while navigating through obstacles. For this, we first identify the obstacle orientation and then determine the distance between each two obstacles and compare it with the robot width. The results of these algorithms are intended to be us...

This paper presents an algorithm for real-time vision based autonomous navigation for mobile ground robots in an unstructured static environment. The obstacle detection is based on Canny edge detection and a suite of algorithms for extracting the location of all obstacles in robot's current view. In order to avoid obstacles we designed a reasoning...

The paper presents the approach we followed for creating a robotics laboratory at the "Politehnica" University of Bucharest, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and the results we obtained within 3 years of activity. The work carried on in this lab ranges from undergraduate students' application classes to master students' projects and from research pr...

The paper presents a workshop and a contest organized for 25 high school students at the “Politehnica” University of Bucharest in early 2010. These activities were coordinated by both University professors and high school teachers and their objectives include introducing students to robotics and also creating a bridge between engineering university...

This paper presents a comparison of performance for the vision sensors and processing power of two, widely used, robotic systems: NXT Mindstorms and SRV-1 Blackfin. The performance analysis was done in relation to an obstacle avoidance algorithm implemented on both platforms. Three case studies were performed: in the first case study we analyzed th...

This paper presents a solution of improving the efficiency of the punch presses equipped with variable speed drives, in case of working in continuous mode (automatically fed with material). The solution consists in uniform motor torque spreading along a working cycle, so that the no-load portion, when motor has the worst efficiency, is eliminat...

This paper presents a solution of improving the efficiency of the punch presses equipped with variable speed drives, in case of working in continuous mode (automatically fed with material). The solution consists in uniform motor torque spreading along a working cycle, so that the no-load portion, when motor has the worst efficiency, is eliminated....

In this paper we describe the implementation of a bi-directional communication between an NXT robot and a PC, using the Bluetooth protocol. We analyse and compare two approaches: a communication that is controlled by PC, using direct commands that the robot interprets and executes and a communication that is controlled by the robot, which sends dat...

This paper presents a testing system designed and built by the authors for testing in real operating conditions the electric traction motors as part of an independent wheel drive electric vehicle. There are presented the solutions chosen for the mechanical part, the hardware and software related to the electric drive system and the monitoring syste...

This paper presents a testing system designed and built by the authors for testing in real operating conditions the electric traction motors as part of an independent wheel drive electric vehicle. There are presented the solutions chosen for the mechanical part, the hardware and software related to the electric drive system and the monitoring syste...

In this article we describe a mobile robot control method based on the optimal path computation for a known environment. The movement control is implemented on the robot, while the algorithm for determining the optimal path is implemented in Matlab. The robot interrogates the PC for getting the coordinates of points on the reference trajectory. The...

The paper presents the main results of the research contract CEEX X2C24: the modeling, design, and testing of two original design electric motors (a brushed DC type, and a brushless DC one), the implementation of a testing bench for the designed motors, the design and test of the control system of the motors, and realization of an experimental mode...

This paper presents a study on the improvement of the punch presser dynamic by using variable frequency drives. It was realized a punch presser dynamic model, which was experimentally validated by measurements. Computer aided data acquisition was made for the presser motor fed directly from the power network and fed by a Voltage Source Inverter (VS...

This paper proposes the improvement of eccentric power presser dynamics by using variable speed induction motor drives. This study comprises two parts: a computer aided data acquisition for the presser motor driven by a Voltage Source Inverter (VSI), and the simulation of the presser dynamics. The power presser and the motor control schemes have be...

This paper deals with the field-circuit type finite element analysis of the dynamic regimes of the three-phase squirrel cage induction generator used in the isolated small power wind conversion systems. The numerical analysis of the squirrel cage induction generator using circuit models may lead to inaccurate results due to the usual simplifying hy...

This paper presents two modified Direct Torque Control (DTC) schemes, which were designed to provide a lower torque ripple than that exhibited by the conventional DTC. The effectiveness of the proposed schemes has been evaluated for a set of operating points and numerical results are presented.

This paper proposes a method of applying the Space Vector Modulation technique for Direct Torque Control (DTC) of a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drive. By this method it is preserved the principle of the conventional DTC regarding the decoupled torque and flux control, while providing more flexibility for the inverter voltage utilizati...

This paper analyses the direct vector control using the FEM model of a wound induction machine. The closed loop contains the induction machine represented by the field model. This model is realistic because takes into account the magnetic saturation and the harmonics introduced by the stator – rotor slots combination. The simulations are performed...

In conventional Direct Torque Control (DTC), a single stator voltage vector of the inverter standard topology is selected every control sampling period, and it is maintained for the whole period. This makes the torque and stator flux reference values to be reached quickly, with a small number of inverter switchings, resulting in a very good d...

In this paper it is presented an installation and the procedure used for monitoring the behaviour of a squirrel cage induction machine. The developed measurement system is able to monitor squirrel-cage induction motors faults using on-line representation of the electrical and mechanical quantities. A DC generator was used to create variable load on...

This paper presents a Direct Torque Control (DTC) scheme for permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drive. The proposed scheme was designed to overcome the main disadvantage of the conventional DTC – the high torque ripple generated in steady state operation. For this purpose, the voltage level at the inverter output is modified according to the...

This paper proposes the improvement of the dynamic performance of the eccentric power presser by controlling the driving motor using the DTC (Direct Torque Control) method. For this purpose, the presser operation was simulated in different situations, and the advantages of using this control scheme were punctuated. The models of the power presser,...

This paper proposes the improvement of eccentric power presser dynamic by using variable speed induction motor drives. For this study, the power presser and the motor control schemes have been modeled and simulated using the Matlab – Simulink software. Two control schemes are investigated: Volt-Hertz and Direct Torque Control. A brief on the operat...

Direct Torque Control (DTC) is a high performance control technique introduced for voltage inverter fed induction motor drives. This technique, based on selecting the optimum stator voltage vector of the inverter standard topology, makes the torque and stator flux reference values to be reached quickly, with a small number of changes in inverter sw...