Simulating Power Systems in Minetest

The goal of the project is to create labs for undergraduate and graduate students taking classes in control systems in order to have better understandings of the ECE444/544 courses. These labs need to be updated to better teach students relevant concepts they can use on the related job and give them an understanding of new control systems schemes they may be interested in implementing. =Problem Definition= Our object is to develop a video game modification to assist future students in learning and experimenting with power systems, DC circuits, AC circuits, and three phase circuits - all with accompanying tools and objects for the circuits to interact with. To aid in this objective the video game chosen to create a mod for is Minetest.

Background
Minetest is a free and open source voxel game. A voxel video game is a game that has a 3d world that consists of ​voxels​. It was chosen as it has extensive support for creating modifications, mods, to the game. It’s straightforward to write mods that modify game behavior and add new elements to the game. Such as power systems, measurements tools, generators, etc... There exists a broad modding community to Minetest, ensuring that problems faced during the development of ElectriCraft may be solved by either reaching out to members of the community to ask questions or by finding reference material online to aid in the development and testing of Minetest.

Goals
ElectriCraft will simulate power station control to help students learn power systems. This will be done by allowing students to create DC, AC, and three phase circuits with accompanying objects. Objects that ElectriCraft will support are digital multi-meter (which may also measures current but can also measure resistance and voltage), generators, wires, and lights. Wires will allow electricity to travel (from generators to lights). Lights will use that energy to and light up. Generators will be the source of electricity and will be configurable by the students (an in-game graphical user interface (GUI) will be present to adjust current, voltage, and power).

=Deliverables=

=Specifications=

=Value Proposition Statement= Factories use automatic systems to control all the operating processes. As we are familiar with, the Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are commonly used throughout the whole world in order to control industrial operating processes and critical infrastructure such as power systems. Our team’s missions are to develop a platform for ECE444/544 and EO students to perform the lab so that they can have a better understanding of the SCADA system. Also, we need to configure the system for off-campus students’ convenience. Meanwhile, cybersecurity is also of great significance. We need to figure out how to prevent cyber attacks.

=Design Considerations= - ECE444/544 courses

- labs materials

- relevant wire connection methods

=Project Learning=

- Review of ECE444 Labs

- Review of Labs in 2019-2020 team

=Final Design=

=Validation=

=Team Members=

=Additional Documentation= Github: Link