Restricted Research - Award List, Note/Discussion Page
Fiscal Year: 2023
1555 The University of Texas at Arlington (143443)
Principal Investigator: Chen Kan,chen.kan@uta.edu,(817) 272-3092
Total Amount of Contract, Award, or Gift (Annual before 2011): $ 250,000
Exceeds $250,000 (Is it flagged?): Yes
Start and End Dates: 6/1/23 - 4/30/24
Restricted Research: YES
Academic Discipline: Industrial,Manufacturing,& Systems Engineering
Department, Center, School, or Institute: none
Title of Contract, Award, or Gift: Develop and Test a Smart FireWatch Cart for Nuclear Power Facilities
Name of Granting or Contracting Agency/Entity:
Utilities Service Alliance, Inc.
CFDA Link: DOE
81.121
Program Title:
none
CFDA Linked: Nuclear Energy Research, Development and Demonstration
Note:
(SAM Category 1.1.1.) This project, as part of a larger project through the Utility Service Alliance funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), aims to develop and test a smart cart that embodies advanced sensing, computing, and communication technologies to replace human operators for continuous and automated fire watch. Specifically, we will pursue three tasks: Task 1: Review the state-of-the-art fire sensing technologies and design the fire watch cart. Existing fire sensing systems will be thoroughly reviewed, and their pros and cons will be investigated. With that, we will design the fire watch cart by identifying the most-suitable hardware components, which include sensors (e.g., a smoke sensor and an ionization detector) and imaging devices (a stereo vision camera and an infrared camera) to enable high-resolution all-around sensing. A processing unit will be selected to coordinate the sensors, and a wireless communication module will be integrated for data streaming. Task 2: Develop two prototypes carts. We will incorporate the hardware components into a cart and further refine the wiring and power supply for optimal performance. Necessary code will be developed to operate the hardware, and a user interface will also be designed for the cart. In addition, we will integrate our cart with NuSuite, a power plant automation ecosystem developed by the Utility Service Alliance so that collected data can be seamlessly streamed to the central computer for real-time information processing. Two prototype carts will be developed. Task 3: Test the prototypes and troubleshoot the hardware. We will work with the Utility Service Alliance and deploy the prototypes at its member nuclear facilities. Experiments will be designed to systematically evaluate the hardware and software of our fire watch carts. Results of pilot testing will be used to refine the cart and enhance its usability and effectiveness, paving the way for practical implementation. Research Team & Timeline This project will begin June 1, 2023 and end April 30, 2024 and be carried out by a synergistic team with interdisciplinary expertise in sensor development and integration (Kan & Huff), unmanned system (Huff), sensor-based monitoring (Kan), design of experiments (Chen), and optimization (Rosenberger). Two Ph.D students and one Master’s research assistant will also be involved into this project.
Discussion: No discussion notes