A Novel System for Monitoring and Controlling Industrial Engine Operation, using Vibration, Magnetic Field, Humidity and Temperature Sensors, Implemented with FPGAs and VHDL

Abstract: A novel system which uses FPGAs and VHDL for monitoring and controlling industrial engine operation, is presented here. The system monitors and controls four basic parameters exerting decisive effect on engine operation, using corresponding sensors. Engine’s vibration, spontaneous fluctuations of magnetic field, humidity and temperature, are simultaneously monitored and controlled. Each sensor acts as input for DE10-Lite FPGA board used here and its values are presented in seven-segment displays. Every sensor is accompanied by indicator LEDs, of which green one indicates that input values are below critical set value limit, while red indicates that the input values of the correspond- ing parameter are greater than or equal to the critical upper value set by the programmer. Our system also uses three additional LEDs controlling the overall engine operation, from which the green one indicates that all sensor input val- ues are within acceptable limits, while red one shows that at least one parameter’s input values are above set limits, meaning that there is a danger for the engine because it is not operating in the appropriate way. The third and yellow LED is activated when the engine overcomes time set period of operation, thus our system implements an additional control and protection of the industrial engine. Both FPGA’s board LEDs and buzzer are activated only if vibration input values are above upper set limit. Our system is cheap to manufacture, easy to use and can be also combined with IoT and AI systems, allowing it to share and process valuable information of all factory’s engines. It also provides the flexibility of setting upper sensor input value limits, depending on monitored engines, thus making it useful in a variety of applications.

Keywords: Industrial engine monitoring, sensors, vibration, magnetic field, humidity, temperature, FPGA, VHDL, Buzzer, LEDs.