Research topics for students

Active topics for possible student theses and indivudual/team projects.

We will provide all required hardware and sensors. We also have a lab environment with all lab equipment where you can perform development and experiments.

If you are a bachelor student and feel that you can handle some specific master topic, you can take it and contact us at mairo.leier@taltech.ee or uljana.reinsalu@taltech.ee for further discussion. 

Topics for BSc and MSc students

Design of an algorithm to decrease the cost for a home energy consumption

(Added 31.01.2023)

General description

House has an independent heating solution (air-water heating pump), 7kW PV panels on the roof and, 10kW inverter and 10kWh batteries. The goal is to use house electricity solution in the most efficient way to minimize the grid electricity usage (as the most expensive one) and minimize the cost for heating.

Things to consider:

  • Electricity buying and selling price is defined based on the Nordpool price.
  • Battery can be charged from the PV panels and also from the grid.
  • It is possible to “say” to the heat pump to be on stand-by for floor heating and also for hot water separately which helps to schedule part of the house power consumption some hours.
  • It is possible to sell the produced electricity to the grid, if needed.
  • Depending on the outside temperature, house needs different number of heating hours per day.
  • One battery discharge-charge cycle costs ca 8 cents.
  • When using battery (charging or discharging) the efficiency is 95% because of the AC-DC/DC-AC conversion.
  1.  

Your tasks

  1. Simulation solution should be written in Python language
  2. Given use-cases for the model testing and evaluation
    1. December, 2kWh energy generated, low average energy price, avg outside temperature -5 deg.
    2. February, 5kWh PV energy generated, low  average energy price, avg outside temperature -10 deg.
    3. July, 40kWh PV energy is generated, moderate average energy price during daytime, avg outside temp +20 deg.
    4. October, 10kWh PV energy is generated, high and low peaks, avg outside temp. +5 deg.
  3. Start from the simple model that helps to understand how the energy costs without optimization.
  4. You could consider implementing the model in different ways like stte machine, machine learning model, statistical methods, etc.
Expected outcome
  • Compare the energy (Ah) and cost (EUR) for all use-cases when not optimized and when optimized
  • If you have tested 

Development of a custom enclosure for hardware with communication protocol interface

(Added 31.01.2023)

Description:

The task requires the students to develop a custom 3D model of an enclosure for a provided hardware. The task also requires the student to implement a design which considers custom design procedure to accommodate certain communication protocols.

The hardware currently is a NRF52840 dongle. A switch and a J-Link communication port has to be implemented in the enclosure design.

Explanation:

Building reliable and protective enclosure is as important as the development of the hardware. The life cycle of a system is greatly affected by the environment around it. To be able to understand and consider the environment where the designed hardware will be implemented allows the design of robust protective enclosers which exponentially increases the life cycle of the hardware.

To consider certain hardware requirements during the designing stage allows for much easier integration of the hardware. Such approaches on modelling are useful in a production environment where one of the most important goals is to ensure high manufacturing output.

Expected Out Comes:

  • To be able to design 3D model which could readily be printed.

  • Understand the requirements that needs to be taken into consideration before and when designing.

  • Understand the best practice and requirements in implementing features to the enclosure (Buttons, LEDs, battery compartment etc.)

  • To be able to design custom ports that could be used to connect to the underlying hardware from external device. (This would consider the need of the environment such as waterproofing etc.)

Power saving mode implemented on NRF running software based on RTOS

(Added 31.01.2023)

Description:

The task is aimed at understanding and implementing power saving methods and features supported and provided by the Nordic semiconductor (NRF52840) running a zephyr based RTOS.

The hardware currently consumes 7mA of current at 3.3v. The minimum required operational time is 3 years. The solution must accomplish these goals from a software perspective by implementation of power saving methods.

Explanation:

Different power saving approaches can be taken from a software perspective to satisfy the power criteria or needs. Different methods have their own set of advantage and disadvantages. In general, the application of one such method would have to be made based on experimentation and through understanding of the needs and outcomes of the system.

Conventional power saving examples include implementation of the power saving features on vanilla embedded system software. Implementation of the same in an RTOS based software requires additional know how’s on task management and memory retention needs.

Expected Out Comes:

  • To be able to understand various power modes such as idle, sleep, deep sleep and hibernation.

  • To be able to understand the importance and the need for the application of power saving features.

  • To be able to understand the methods to revive the system from the applied power saving method.

  • To be able to apply such features on an example RTOS based software.

  • Understand the battery consumption calculation methods and to be able to extract viable conclusion from comparison of different power saving methods depending on the need, practicality and importance.

PhD research topics

Reinforcement learning on embedded systems

Distributed machine learning on embedded systems