ABSTRACT. The paper is focused to the development of cooperation between University Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UPS, newly UT3) and Technical University of Liberec (TUL), culminating in the completion of the Double Degree Master´s programme „Engineering of Interactive Systems“ (2009-2015) and „Computer Science for Aerospace“ (2017 - 2021). The development of the International doctoral workshop ECMS(M), which is newly implemented under the patronage of IEEE, is mentioned briefly.

ABSTRACT. The study of skin mechanical impedance is a clue to analyse its health. We use a Langevin Transducer at 60kHz to excite the skin. In return, we observe the acoustic forces generated by the interaction. To achieve that, the system is identified and presented in the rotating reference frame, and we describe the design of two PI controllers that accurately control the vibration velocity. However, in vivo analysis can be tricky when it comes to the safety and duration of tests. Thus, phantom tissues are used as a substitute to simulate skin behaviour. Due to its mechanical properties similar to skin, and its simple manipulation, Dragon Skin \textregistered, a silicone rubber type of phantom, was chosen. The paper presents the characterisation of the mechanical impedance of three silicon phantoms with different properties based on force observation. The results show that the phantoms can be indeed identified based on this method.

ABSTRACT. The article describes design and development of an ice detection device that uses a real 1 m part of an electric copper trolley wire for its operation. The wire part is oriented in the same direction as the trolley wire in the given place and thus a high compliance of the ice sensor with real conditions (spatial dimensions, orientation and heat capacity) is achieved. An ice meter equipped with this sensor can determine the robustness and duration of ice phenomena on trolley wires much more accurately and uses this information to deduce the risk of endangering public transport. The ice detector works on the principle of strain gauge load cell weighing. For its own diagnostics, the device can also measure temperature and relative humidity and is equipped with heating wires so that the movable parts of the device do not freeze.

ABSTRACT. This article deals with the design and drive of a thin plate wall, bended by piezoelectric fibers (MFC- Macro Fiber Composite). The purpose of this deformable membrane is to drive a moving fluid inside a channel according to a principle similar to peristaltic pumping. To promote this pumping effect, the deformation of the wall must be as a traveling-like wave with sufficiently high amplitude to transfer of momentum to the fluid.

ABSTRACT. Multiport power converters are used to connect various types of energy sources and loads. These sources are usually connected via DC-DC converters to a common DC bus. However, such approach requires multiple power conversions, which reduces the efficiency of the whole system. The article describes a multiport converter with a parallel connection of transformers. The proposed topology uses a smaller number of power conversions, which increases the efficiency of the whole system. Furthermore, the topology allows easy addition or removal of next power sources or loads. A new approach is also used in deriving of a mathematical model of converter. The proposed control allows the transfer of energy between arbitrary converter ports. The proposed topology and its control were verified by simulation, and the results are presented in the article.

ABSTRACT. The paper presents an approach to the designing and implementing of a cyclic battery tester and contains observations about lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, charging/discharging procedures, conditions and protections, which must be observed during the testing process. The main goal was to design a universal converter that is capable of charging and discharging battery cells according to electric vehicles purposes. Our universal charging process offers user-defined parameters, which are required in order to properly test different types of battery cells. Discharging process can be done in two ways: constant current discharging and variable discharging current using a drive profile. The final result is a fully functional device that communicates with a superior system, which records actual data from the battery tester with the intention of future diagnostics of the state of health of battery cells.

ABSTRACT. The paper presents an analysis of the actual situation of the number of electric cars in the Czech Republic and the state of infrastructure in the form of charging stations. Baseline scenarios for the future expected increase in the number of electric cars and charging stations follows. This trend of increasing the number of cars will lead to increased demands on the supply and production of electricity that drives such cars. The electrical network in the Czech Republic certainly has capacity reserves in the area of production, less so in the area of distribution. The article provides an overview of how much the demand for electricity will increase and how this demand is likely to spread in the daily load diagram. This global view is the first necessary analysis to enable the development of electromobility in the Czech Republic.

ABSTRACT. The CAN Bus protocol is widely used in various technological areas such as industrial, medical, or automotive. Developed by Bosch in the 1980s, this protocol is predominantly used in commercial vehicles to reduce emissions with the introduction of electronic control. It makes data from sensors and diagnostics codes available through the OBD-II connector. Many vendors sell devices and software tools to read CAN Bus data in a friendly way in exchange for a monthly fee. The aim of this work is to develop a low cost OBD-II device controlled with an open-source software. A dedicated board using an Arduino Nano with a microSD slot and on-board LCD screen was developed for this purpose. This device collects information emitted by a vehicle ECU with the MCP2515 through an OBD-II connector. This article presents the stages of the design and construction of the board, and the validation tests carried out to determine its functionality as a datalogger. Finally, a graph that plots the sensor data recorded from the OBD-II datalogger is presented as RPM vs. speed.

ABSTRACT. Metallic additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, is greatly improving for the last decade. This new technology brings a greater design freedom than classical manufacturing and allow the production of breakthrough architectures especially thanks to topological optimization. However, metallic additive manufacturing is not mature yet to create parts whit properties equal to those of machined parts. Hence, this article purpose is to evaluate the maturity of metallic additive manufacturing in the field of electromechanical conversion. To achieve this goal, an optimized rotor of switched reluctance machine was built thanks to additive manufacturing. The technology used is Selective Laser Melting. The material powder is Fe-35%Ni which has interesting magnetic properties and low magnetic losses. The performances of this rotor are compared to the performances of a classical laminated rotor with the exact same dimensions, both driven by the same stator. The results will thus help determine the level of maturity of 3D printing in the particular field of electromechanical conversion.

ABSTRACT. Geared servodrives are tested with different types of short-term or long-term tests. This paper presents the industrial approach to load emulation in the testing process of electrical actuators. Presented testing method is based on the real data provided by the customer. This data is modified, processed, and then used for the calculation of a load torque reference for the drive loading actuator under test. Final implementation is based on industrial drives controlled by PLC. NI PXI was used for graphical user interface and data acquisition. Experimental results that confirm the correctness of the implementation are included.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents an optimization procedure to find optimal parameters of torque sharing functions (TSF) used in switched reluctance motor control. A finite element method simulation model of the motor is built and verified to evaluate the objective function. The result of the optimization is a set of functions that calculate optimal values of start angle and overlap angle of sinusoidal TSF for every operational point of the motor. Different objective functions, including efficiency and a torque ripple, can be used.

ABSTRACT. This paper deals with Spoke Type Permanent Magnet Axial Flux Machines which have a great interest in transportation applications. Indeed, as the other permanent magnet axial flux machines they can have very high specific torque. The spoke type architecture has ability for flux weakening. 3D finite difference model of the open circuit field is developed. In order to reduce the number of unknowns, the magnetic scalar potential formulation is used. According to the geometrical symmetries of the motor, the study domain can be reduced strongly. These choices contribute to get a fast computation time. The obtained results from this approach are compared to the results obtained by 3D finite element analysis.

ABSTRACT. Traction drives are the main propulsion drives for electric vehicles. Electric vehicles need to operate with the maximum available drive efficiency to maximise driving range per a single charge. Research into advanced traction electric propulsion for vehicles is still asking for data on individual electric drive components' efficiency. Available data on the efficiency of electrical components from manufacturers and suppliers are often relatively difficult to obtain. Other ways to obtain data on drive components' efficiency are results from simulations using mathematical models and results from efficiency measurements. As part of this work, an experiment was conducted to measure an electric drive's efficiency consisting of a three-phase controller and a permanent magnet synchronous motor on an available test stand equipped with an electric dynamometer and a torque sensor. A power analyser was used to measure and process electrical and mechanical quantities in the experiment. The experiment resulted in separate maps of the efficiency of the electric drive, controller and motor.