Controller masters Antarctic environment
An
Eurotherm product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Oct 3, 2003
A remote, self-powered observatory, set up on an isolated site in Antarctica, is using a standard Eurotherm 2416 temperature controller to maintain internal temperatures within the unit.
A remote, self-powered observatory, set up on an isolated site in Antarctica, is using a standard Eurotherm 2416 temperature controller to maintain internal temperatures within the unit.
The international Aastino project, set up by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) to measure weather and sky emission, is controlled and monitored remotely using a satellite data link.
Aastino is a joint Australian-French-Italian-US experiment, sited at the Franco-Italian Antarctic Base at Concordia.
It has been set up to categorise the qualities of the isolated site for a future astronomical observatory.
The project is a self contained, self-powered robotic observatory controlled by a Gnu/Linux computer.
It communicates with the Internet via an Iridium satellite phone.
Equipment on site includes a web camera, a sonic radar (sodar), a submillimetre sky monitor, and associated experiments to measure the mid-IR sky emission and cloud cover.
Power is provided by two on-site Stirling engines, plus two solar panels.
The Eurotherm 2416 at the site is used to maintain the internal temperature of the Aastino enclosure.
This is done via fans that introduce cold outside air and displace heated air from the interior via ducting.
The primary source of interior heat is from glycol radiators, controlled independently by the site's Stirling cycle generators.
Scientists from UNSW who monitor and manage the site, can read and control data from the 2416 via an RS232 link and the Aastino supervisory computer, which is in turn communicates via the satellite datalink.
The Eurotherm Model 2416 is a high-stability sixteenth-DIN process controller, which despite its compact size offers a wide range of operating options.
Measuring just 48 x 48 x 150mm, it can function with either PID, on/off or motorised valve control configurations.
It also features advanced PID tuning algorithms to optimise control performance.
A range of plug-in modules provide outputs for heating, cooling and analogue retransmission as well as logic telemetry.
Particularly significant in this application, the 2416 has a built-in high-speed digital communications capability using industry standard protocols, allowing easy connection to remote monitoring systems, supervisory control and data logging systems.
It is also designed to work reliably within an ambient of 0-55C, 0-90% relative humidity (noncondensing), and environmental panel sealing is to IP65.
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