LABS

Laboratories and Infrastructure in Energy Systems

Siemens Digital Grid Laboratory

Harris Engineering Center (HEC), RM 302

MISSION: New features of Siemens commercial software (MGMS, ADMS, SINCAL, etc.) are beta-tested in the lab. The packages are also used to conduct research in optimal operation of transmission and distribution systems with high penetration of renewable energies, stochastic modeling of power systems, protection of PV farms, real-time monitoring of transmission and distribution systems, distribution system automation, and power system restoration and resilience analysis. Research outcomes are then incorporated to enhance functionalities of these packages. The lab is also used for both class instructions and training activities.


UCF Center on Resilient Intelligent Sustainable Energy Systems (RISES)

Research I Building, Suite 150

MISSION: The RISES is a university center that provides the basic infrastructure for UCF students and faculty to conduct research in such areas as high-penetration renewable integration, distributed control and optimization, resilience and restoration of power systems, and secure CPS. Our educational and research activities include close collaborations with utilities (Duke Energy, Orlando Utilities Commission, etc), industry (Siemens, GE, Leidos, TI, etc) and national labs (NREL, LANL and PNNL).

The center has eight laboratories:

GE/FPL Microgrid Control Laboratory

Research I Building, RM 154

MISSION: The lab aims at safe, reliable, efficient and secure operation of large-scale distribution networks with extremely high penetration of renewables. Local communication and automatic clustering are used to enable self-organizing microgrids. Distributed optimization and control algorithms are used to autonomously coordinate intermittent renewables and other distributed energy resources, to maintain voltage stability, to minimize energy loss, and to optimize demand responses and storage. Through collaborating with industry/utility partners, real-world data are used to validate designs, and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations are conducted. Students can also test their algorithms using a bench-top setup.

 

Laboratories in Cyber-Physical Systems and Robotics

ECE Cyber-Physical Systems & Control Laboratory

L3Harris Engineering Center (HEC), RM 434

MISSION: The Systems & Control Laboratory is to develop new systematic analysis/design tools and optimization/control algorithms that achieve autonomy, guaranteed performance and intelligence for cyber-physical systems. The systems under consideration are networked systems whose dynamics are complex and uncertain, whose interactions are local and intermittent as well as may be competitive, and whose operational condition and environment are highly unpredictable and changing. The specific applications include swarms of robots, tele-operation, autonomous operation of UAVs, cooperative guidance of munitions, control of biomedical devices and systems, distributed renewable generation and smart grid. By working with industry and governmental agencies, we aim to address these comtemporary technical challenges in the fields of cyber-physical systems and networked controls.

UCF Medical Robotics Laboratory

L3Harris Engineering Center (HEC), RM 263

MISSION: The Medical Robotics Laboratory is to bring together a team of faculty from UCF and local hospitals, to educate our students the state-of-art techniques in medical robotic surgery, and to conduct multidisciplinary research in tele-surgery, mixed and augmented virtual reality, surgical simulation and rehearsal, virtual mentoring, and other technologies of medical robotics.

ECE Robotics Laboratory

Engineering 1 Building, RM 364

MISSION: The Robotics Lab aims at developing optimization and control algorithms, software and hardware that enables autonomy of unmanned (aerial, ground, surface and underwater) vehicles, energy harvesting from ocean waves, manufacturing automation, space robotics, and other robotic applications.