Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 70

Proceedings of the 27th International

Conference on Systems Engineering,


ICSEng 2020: 182 (Lecture Notes in
Networks and Systems, 182) Henry
Selvaraj (Editor)
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmeta.com/product/proceedings-of-the-27th-international-conference-on-s
ystems-engineering-icseng-2020-182-lecture-notes-in-networks-and-systems-182-he
nry-selvaraj-editor/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Microelectronics Circuits and Systems Select


Proceedings of 7th International Conference on
Micro2020 Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering 755

https://ebookmeta.com/product/microelectronics-circuits-and-
systems-select-proceedings-of-7th-international-conference-on-
micro2020-lecture-notes-in-electrical-engineering-755/

Web Information Systems Engineering – WISE 2021: 22nd


International Conference on Web Information Systems
Engineering, WISE 2021, Melbourne, VIC, Australia,
October 26-29, 2021 Proceedings, Part I Wenjie Zhang
https://ebookmeta.com/product/web-information-systems-
engineering-wise-2021-22nd-international-conference-on-web-
information-systems-engineering-wise-2021-melbourne-vic-
australia-october-26-29-2021-proceedings-pa/

Advances in Deep Learning, Artificial Intelligence and


Robotics: Proceedings of the 2nd International
Conference on Deep Learning, Artificial ... 2020
(Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems) Luigi Troiano
(Editor)
https://ebookmeta.com/product/advances-in-deep-learning-
artificial-intelligence-and-robotics-proceedings-of-the-2nd-
international-conference-on-deep-learning-
artificial-2020-lecture-notes-in-networks-and-systems-luigi-tro/

Advances in Networked Based Information Systems The


24th International Conference on Network Based
Information Systems NBiS 2021 Lecture Notes in Networks
and Systems Springer
https://ebookmeta.com/product/advances-in-networked-based-
information-systems-the-24th-international-conference-on-network-
based-information-systems-nbis-2021-lecture-notes-in-networks-
Intelligent Tutoring Systems 18th International
Conference ITS 2022 Bucharest Romania June 29 July 1
2022 Proceedings Scott Crossley

https://ebookmeta.com/product/intelligent-tutoring-systems-18th-
international-conference-its-2022-bucharest-romania-
june-29-july-1-2022-proceedings-scott-crossley/

Intelligent Systems and Applications Proceedings of the


2021 Intelligent Systems Conference IntelliSys Volume 1
294 Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems Kohei Arai
(Editor)
https://ebookmeta.com/product/intelligent-systems-and-
applications-proceedings-of-the-2021-intelligent-systems-
conference-intellisys-volume-1-294-lecture-notes-in-networks-and-
systems-kohei-arai-editor/

Proceedings of the International Conference of


Mechatronics and Cyber MixMechatronics 2018 Lecture
Notes in Networks and Systems Book 48 Gheorghe I
Gheorghe
https://ebookmeta.com/product/proceedings-of-the-international-
conference-of-mechatronics-and-cyber-
mixmechatronics-2018-lecture-notes-in-networks-and-systems-
book-48-gheorghe-i-gheorghe/

Semantic Systems In the Era of Knowledge Graphs 16th


International Conference on Semantic Systems SEMANTiCS
2020 Amsterdam The Netherlands September 7 10 2020
Proceedings Eva Blomqvist
https://ebookmeta.com/product/semantic-systems-in-the-era-of-
knowledge-graphs-16th-international-conference-on-semantic-
systems-semantics-2020-amsterdam-the-netherlands-
september-7-10-2020-proceedings-eva-blomqvist/

Digital Transformation Technology Proceedings of ITAF


2020 Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 224 Dalia
A. Magdi

https://ebookmeta.com/product/digital-transformation-technology-
proceedings-of-itaf-2020-lecture-notes-in-networks-and-
systems-224-dalia-a-magdi/
Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 182

Henry Selvaraj
Grzegorz Chmaj
Dawid Zydek Editors

Proceedings of the
27th International
Conference
on Systems
Engineering,
ICSEng 2020
Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems

Volume 182

Series Editor
Janusz Kacprzyk, Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences,
Warsaw, Poland

Advisory Editors
Fernando Gomide, Department of Computer Engineering and Automation—DCA,
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering—FEEC, University of Campinas—
UNICAMP, São Paulo, Brazil
Okyay Kaynak, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey
Derong Liu, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University
of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA; Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy
of Sciences, Beijing, China
Witold Pedrycz, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada; Systems Research Institute,
Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
Marios M. Polycarpou, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
KIOS Research Center for Intelligent Systems and Networks, University of Cyprus,
Nicosia, Cyprus
Imre J. Rudas, Óbuda University, Budapest, Hungary
Jun Wang, Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong,
Kowloon, Hong Kong
The series “Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems” publishes the latest
developments in Networks and Systems—quickly, informally and with high quality.
Original research reported in proceedings and post-proceedings represents the core
of LNNS.
Volumes published in LNNS embrace all aspects and subfields of, as well as new
challenges in, Networks and Systems.
The series contains proceedings and edited volumes in systems and networks,
spanning the areas of Cyber-Physical Systems, Autonomous Systems, Sensor
Networks, Control Systems, Energy Systems, Automotive Systems, Biological
Systems, Vehicular Networking and Connected Vehicles, Aerospace Systems,
Automation, Manufacturing, Smart Grids, Nonlinear Systems, Power Systems,
Robotics, Social Systems, Economic Systems and other. Of particular value to both
the contributors and the readership are the short publication timeframe and the
world-wide distribution and exposure which enable both a wide and rapid
dissemination of research output.
The series covers the theory, applications, and perspectives on the state of the art
and future developments relevant to systems and networks, decision making, control,
complex processes and related areas, as embedded in the fields of interdisciplinary
and applied sciences, engineering, computer science, physics, economics, social, and
life sciences, as well as the paradigms and methodologies behind them.
Indexed by SCOPUS, INSPEC, WTI Frankfurt eG, zbMATH, SCImago.
All books published in the series are submitted for consideration in Web of
Science.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15179


Henry Selvaraj Grzegorz Chmaj
• •

Dawid Zydek
Editors

Proceedings of the 27th


International Conference
on Systems Engineering,
ICSEng 2020

123
Editors
Henry Selvaraj Grzegorz Chmaj
Department of Electrical and Computer Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering Engineering
University of Nevada Las Vegas University of Nevada Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV, USA Las Vegas, NV, USA

Dawid Zydek
Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering
University of Nevada Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV, USA

ISSN 2367-3370 ISSN 2367-3389 (electronic)


Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems
ISBN 978-3-030-65795-6 ISBN 978-3-030-65796-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65796-3
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard
to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface

ICSEng 2020

This important series of conferences arose from technical cooperation among


Wrocław University of Science and Technology (Poland), Coventry Polytechnic
(UK), Wright State University (USA) and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
(USA). Prior to 1980, a series of International Conferences on Systems Science had
been held in Wroclaw, Poland. In 1980, it was decided that the conference would
change venue on alternate years, be held in Coventry, UK, and, at the same time,
change emphasis from science to engineering when hosted in UK. Consequently,
the First and Second International Conferences on Systems Engineering were held
in Coventry, UK, in 1980 and 1982. In 1982, it was decided that the engineering
series of conferences would be held in the USA each third year. The Third and Fifth
International Conferences on Systems Engineering were held in Dayton, Ohio,
USA. The Seventh, Ninth, Eleventh, Thirteenth, Fifteenth, Seventeenth,
Nineteenth, Twenty-First, Twenty-Third and Twenty-Fifth International
Conferences on Systems Engineering were held in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. In the
year 2018, the twenty-sixth conference was held at the University of Technology
Sydney, Australia. This year 2020, the Twenty-Seventh International Conference
on Systems Engineering is held in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Due to unforeseen
circumstances arising out of the COVID-19 outbreak, the conference is held
remotely.
Research in the discipline of systems engineering is an important concept in the
advancement of engineering and information sciences. Systems engineering
attempts to integrate many of the traditional engineering disciplines to solve large
complex functioning engineering systems, dependent on components from all the
disciplines. The research papers contained in these proceedings reflect the state
of the art in systems engineering from all over the world and should serve as vital
references to researchers to follow.
We received 92 submissions. Each paper was reviewed by at least two inde-
pendent reviewers. A total of 44 papers were selected as full papers that gives an

v
vi Preface

acceptance rate of 48%. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is very pleased to
host this Twenty-Seventh International Conference on Systems Engineering.
We would like to thank all the authors, reviewers, participants and student
volunteers for making the conference a success. We wish all the participants a
fruitful conference.

Henry Selvaraj
ICSEng 2020 General Chair
Grzegorz Chmaj
Dawid Zydek
ICSEng 2020 Organizing Committee Co-chairs
Conference Organization

ICSEng 2020
General Chair
H. Selvaraj University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA

Organizing Committee Co-chairs


G. Chmaj University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
D. Zydek University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA

Steering Committee Chair


H. Selvaraj University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA

Steering Committee
H. Selvaraj University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
G. Chmaj University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
D. Zydek University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
J. Swiatek Wrocław University of Science and Technology,
Poland
P. Swiatek Wrocław University of Science and Technology,
Poland
K. Burnham University of Wolverhampton, UK

Organizing Committee
G. Chmaj University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
D. Zydek University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
B. Tiwari University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
S. Sharma University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA

vii
viii Conference Organization

Program Committee
ICSEng 2020
R. J. Baker University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
G. Borowik Deep Dive Lab, Poland
A. P. F. Carvalho University of Sao Paulo at Sao Carlos, Brazil
Z. Chaczko University of Technology Sydney, Australia
G. Chmaj University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
M. Ezra Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia
T. Fujimoto Toyo University, Japan
L. Gewali University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
T. F. Gonzalez University of California at Santa Barbara, USA
T. Gorski Polish Naval Academy, Poland
A. Iyer Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
L. Jozwiak Eindhoven University of Technology,
Netherlands
J. Kacprzyk Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
A. Kasprzak Wrocław University of Science and Technology,
Poland
A. Khamis Military Technical College, Cairo, Egypt
M. H. Kolekar Indian Institute of Technology Patna, India
L. Koszalka Wrocław University of Science and Technology,
Poland
T. Luba Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
H. Migliore Portland State University, USA
S. Muthaly Asia Pacific University of Technology &
Innovation, Malaysia
I. Pozniak-Koszalka Wrocław University of Science and Technology,
Poland
J. Rozenblit University of Arizona, USA
H. Selvaraj University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
D. Selvathi Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, India
S. Singh University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
P. Stubberud University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
S. Stubberud Boeing Company, USA
M. Thoma University of Hannover, Germany
A. Vadivel SRM AP, Amaravati, India
R. Venkat University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
L. Wang Harbin Institute of Technology, China
M. Wozniak Wrocław University of Science and Technology,
Poland
D. Zydek University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
Conference Organization ix

Sponsors
Contents

AeroSpace Systems
A Track Registration Association Technique – Feature Analysis . . . . . . 3
Stephen C. Stubberud and Kathleen A. Kramer
Investigation of Wind Energy Impact on Power Systems Stability
Using Lyapunov Exponents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Mojtaba Amiri, Maryam Dehghani, Alireza Khayatian,
Mohsen Mohammadi, Navid Vafamand, and Jalil Boudjadar
Motor Current Signature Analysis Using Shapelet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Maryam Iraji, Maryam Dehghani, Mohsen Mohammadi, Navid Vafamand,
and Jalil Boudjadar
A Prototype Telepresence Robot for Use in the Investigation of Ebola
and Lassa Virus Threatened Villages in Nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
S. D. Monk, E. Jorgensen, A. McCulloch, R. Peacock,
I. Sangprachatanaruk, J. Azeta, C. A. Bolu, and C. J. Taylor
Hamiltonian-Based Libration Point Orbit Control on Manifold
of Constant Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Keum W. Lee and Sahjendra N. Singh
State and Control Input Limitations in Sliding Mode Control
with System Uncertainties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Marek Jaskuła and Piotr Leśniewski
Pointing Orientations for Manipulator End-Effectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Douglas R. Isenberg
Non-switching Reaching Law Based DSMC Strategies in the Context
of Robustness Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Paweł Latosiński and Monika Herkt

xi
xii Contents

Intelligent Systems
Different Approaches to Threshold Estimation for Variation Mode
Decomposition-Based Signal Denoising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Krzysztof Brzostowski and Jerzy Świątek
Multi-criteria Optimization of Freight Parking Planning Along
a Single Corridor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Grzegorz Filcek and Maciej Hojda
Synthesis of Index Generation Function Using Linear
and Functional Decomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Grzegorz Borowik, Tadeusz Łuba, Dariusz Wąsicki, and Grzegorz Chmaj
Differential Evolution with Taguchi Crossover Using
Polar Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Peter Stubberud
Using Machine Learning Techniques to Estimate the Remaining
Useful Life of a System with Different Types of Datasets . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Carlos Lemus and Shahram Latifi

Machine Learning and Analytics


Random Generation of Visibility Aware Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Laxmi Gewali and Bibek Subedi
Assessment of Groundwater Quality and Quantity Using Supervised
Machine Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Ashika Mettu and Shahram Latifi
An Efficient Approach for Selecting QoS-Based Web Service Machine
Learning Models Using Topsis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Miguel Angel Quiroz Martinez, Josue Leonardo Moncayo Redin,
Erick David Alvarado Castillo, and Luis Andy Briones Peñafiel
Automated Agronomy: Evaluation of Fruits Ripeness Using Machine
Learning Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Grzegorz Chmaj, Saugat Sharma, and Henry Selvaraj

Internet of Things
Adaptation-Enabled Architecture for Internet of Things Systems . . . . . 195
Patryk Schauer and Łukasz Falas
Internet of Things Systems as Complex Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Patryk Schauer, Łukasz Falas, and Arkadiusz Warzyński
Communication Services in the Internet of Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Patryk Schauer, Łukasz Falas, and Arkadiusz Warzyński
Contents xiii

A Smart Environment Monitoring Application for Mobile Internet


of Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Samia Tasnim, Ahmon Ferguson, Brooke Gordon, Chad Gordon,
Kishwar Ahmed, and Idongesit Mkpong-Ruffin

Special Session: Applied Media Informatics and Technology


Interaction Design for Email Client: User Movements Reflected in
Gesture-based Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Ziran Fan and Takayuki Fujimoto
A Support System for Habitual Journaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Chie Shiraishi and Takayuki Fujimoto
“Ready-Made Computing“ for Cost-Effective Service Performance . . . . 258
Kazuya Murata and Takayuki Fujimoto
Design of Smartphone Software Keyboard for Sensory Experience . . . . 267
Yui Tanaka and Takayuki Fujimoto
Problems with the Corporate Information System for Work Efficiency
Improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Wangjie Xu, Takayuki Fujimoto, and Ziran Fan
Re-experiencing the ‘Process of Perception’: Consideration
of ‘Memory’ Reproduction with Data Mapping Structure
of Brain Cortex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Ning Zhou and Takayuki Fujimoto
Prototyping and Evaluation of Drawing Software to Provide
Analog-Like Feeling by Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Yulana Watanabe, Yui Tanaka, and Takayuki Fujimoto
Facial Features in Stylized Images Typically Used for Face
Recognition and Comparison of Impression Between Stylized Images
and AI Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Miki Sunakawa and Takayuki Fujimoto
Examination of Tourism Promotion Using Online Videos . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Shunsuke Aoki and Takayuki Fujimoto
SNS Application with “Peeping Function” to Prevent Information
Leakage on Social Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Taishi Nemoto and Takayuki Fujimoto
Proposal and Prototype of Video Playback Method Based
on Walking Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Tianyu Zhu, Takayuki Fujimoto, and Ziran Fan
xiv Contents

A Research of the Utilization of an Educational Space


as an Advertising Medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Kanata Itoh and Takayuki Fujimoto
Examination of Problems and Improvements of Virtual Library
Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Xuezhen Li, Takayuki Fujimoto, and Ziran Fan
Enhanced Sign Changes for SEMG Onset Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Mateusz Magda, Jerzy Świątek, and Piotr Wyrostek

Special Session: Optimal, Robust, and Adaptive Control Systems


Optimal Energy Resources Scheduling of Hybrid Diesel/Battery Ships
in Shallow Waters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Mohsen Banaei, Jalil Boudjadar, and Mohammad-Hassan Khooban
Linear Quadratic Regulator for Helicopter Model with a Prescribed
Degree of Stability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Kaushik Raj, Santosh Kumar Choudhary, and Venkatesan Muthukumar
A Safety-Driven Cost Optimization for the Real-Time Operation
of a Hybrid Energy System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Jalil Boudjadar and Mohammad Hassan Khooban

Special Session: Software Engineering


Context Driven Software Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Arunkumar Khannur
A Framework for the Semiotic Quality of User Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Pankaj Kamthan and Nazlie Shahmir
On Marketable User Stories for Customer Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Pankaj Kamthan and Nazlie Shahmir

Special Session: Engineering of Cyber-Physical Systems


Hierarchical Versioning to Increase Compatibility in Signal-Oriented
Vehicle Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Andreas Vetter and Eric Sax
Towards Data-Driven Digital Twins for Smart Manufacturing . . . . . . . 445
Deena P. Francis, Sanja Lazarova-Molnar, and Nader Mohamed
Contents xv

A KNN Approach for Blockchain Based Electronic Health


Record Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
Sazia Parvin, Sonia Farhana Nimmy, Sitalakshmi Venkatraman,
Sa’ed Abed, and Amjad Gawanmeh

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465


AeroSpace Systems
A Track Registration Association Technique –
Feature Analysis

Stephen C. Stubberud1 and Kathleen A. Kramer2(&)


1
General Atomics – EMS, San Diego, CA, USA
scstubberud@ieee.org
2
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of San Diego,
San Diego, CA, USA
kramer@sandiego.edu

Abstract. A recent track-to-track association technique was developed to


associate tracks from multiple sensor platforms where position and heading
errors were incorporated into the reports. When this issue, known as target
registration, is present, standard association routines often result in misassoci-
ations or non-associations between the tracks of the same target. This new
technique develops a track representation that is invariant in translation errors
and insensitive to rotation errors. It has been demonstrated to be effective for
registration problems with reasonable heading errors and any translation errors.
In this work, the features used in the track representation are analyzed for their
effectiveness and sensitivity for various registration error sizes, providing the
foundation for the weighting of the features to enhance registration association.

Keywords: Target registration  Registration association  Target tracking 


Translation error  Rotation error

1 Introduction

Target registration occurs when multiple target tracking platforms are reporting their
tracks to other platforms, but bias errors in one or more readings causing the potential
for misassociation. Standard association routines are based on nearest neighbor or the
chi-squared-metric [1, 2].
Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the registration problem. In Fig. 1, two platforms are
tracking the same target. If both platforms knew their local coordinates and headings
exactly, their reported tracks would be as shown. Figure 2 illustrates the difference in
reported tracks if one of them had a bias in its reported position, and an offset in its
heading. Standard association routines in such as case can undergo gate out. A gate out
occurs when the association score exceeds a threshold value that defines a score that
indicates that the no association should be allowed.
In [3], an association approach for registration was presented. The approach was an
extension of the association routine first developed in [4, 5]. This image-correlation
technique for general track association gave the foundation for a track representation
that is invariant when registration occurs. The problem with the technique is that when
uncertainty in the track is present, the correlation falls apart.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021


H. Selvaraj et al. (Eds.): ICSEng 2020, LNNS 182, pp. 3–11, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65796-3_1
4 S. C. Stubberud and K. A. Kramer

A recently developed registration-association technique [6] used the idea of from


[3] of track representation that would be invariant under registration. This association
scheme used the chi-squared metric as the foundation. The key difference between this
technique and the standard application is the track vector representation. The core idea
was to develop a registration-invariant representation of tracks. The results indicated
that the technique is invariant for translation but not for rotation. It demonstrated
insensitivity to rotation of the tracks but not a true invariance.

Fig. 1. Two sensor platforms provide two track reports of the same target.

In this paper, the individual features of the vector representing the tracks are
analyzed. The impact on the association score for each feature is analyzed. The impact
is then used to estimate weighting on the feature to determine is the insensitivity over
different regions of rotation can be increased. Section 2 provides a summary overview
the registration-association technique. In Sect. 3, the feature’s effects on the association
score under different rotation conditions are analyzed. This followed in Sect. 4 with
proposed weighting schemes in the association routine.

2 Registration Association Technique

The standard tracking algorithm is the extended Kalman filter (EKF). The track state,
usually referred to as x, is a Gaussian random vector with an associated covariance,
often denoted as P. The standard association is referred to as the chi-squared metric.
For standard track-to-track association, the metric is defined as

v2 ¼ ðxPlatA  xPlatB ÞT ðPPlatA þ PPlatB Þ1  ðxPlatA  xPlatB Þ ð1Þ

Since this is the multiplication of two Gaussian random variables, the metric has a
chi-squared distribution. The vector of errors between the two tracks is weighted by the
A Track Registration Association Technique – Feature Analysis 5

Fig. 2. Sensor Platform 2 has a registration error in reporting, both translation and rotation.

vector uncertainties. Thus, differences that are associated with large uncertainties are
weighted less while small differences are amplified when associated with small
uncertainties. An analogy would be close stars in astronomy as compared to missed
putts in golf.
The standard vector used in track association is a vector comprised of position,
velocity, and, sometimes, acceleration. The position-velocity vector is defined as

xT ¼ ½ x x_ y y_  ð2Þ

Each track-pair score is then entered into an assignment matrix after being pro-
cessed as

ev
2
ð3Þ

An assignment matrix that provides the maximum total score is produced by


applying a version of the Munkres algorithm [7] upon the full set of track-pair scores.
A new track-vector is defined in Eq. (4) as the distance traveled, the direction travelled,
the change in speed, and the target heading for each time step. This vector represents
the track differently than Eq. (2) which would be impacted significantly by translation
and rotation errors.
2  2 1 3
2~ 3 ~xn þ ~y2n 2
dn 6      7
6 7
6 h~ 7 6 tan1 ~~yxnn  tan1 ~~xynn 1 7
6 n7 6 1 7
6 7¼6  2 1 7 ð4Þ
4 ~sn 5 6 ~ ~
x_ n þ y_ n
2 2 7
6 7
u~n 4     5
tan1 yx__ nn
6 S. C. Stubberud and K. A. Kramer

where
2 3 2 3
xen xn  xn1
6 ye 7 6 y  y 7
6 n7 6 n n1 7
6e 7¼6 7: ð5Þ
4 x_ n 5 4 x_ n  x_ n1 5
y_en y_ n  y_ n1

It is important to note that the fourth element in Eq. (4) is only the current heading
information provided by the track state. Unlike the first (distance) element and third
(speed change) element, which were both based upon current and previous state ele-
ments, the heading angle change proved too noisy to be effective, even with smoothing
over time, as used in the second element for the position angle.
The chi-squared metric to determine the association score is from Sensor Plat-
form A to Sensor Platform B therefore generated as.
 T  1  
v2Reg ¼ V Track pltA  V Track pltB HPpltA H T þ HPpltB H T V Track pltA  V Track pltB ;
ð6Þ

where
3 02 2~ 3 1
d~n dn
B ~ 7 C
  B6 6 hn 7
6~
6 hn 7
7 C
V Trackplt A B
 V Trackplt B ¼ B6 7 6 7 C ð7Þ
4 5 4 5 C
@ ~sn ~sn A
u~ n Trackplt A ~ n Trackplt B
u

and the matrix P is the associated standard track four-state position and velocity
covariance matrix. The Jacobian is defined in Eq. (8) as.
2 @hd @hh @hs @hu 3 2 @hd @hh
3
@x @x @x @x @x @x
6 @hd @hu 7 6 @hd @hh
0 7
6 @hh @hs 7 6 7
6 @y @y @y @y 7 6 @y @y 7
H ¼6 7¼6 @hu 7
6 @hd @hh @hs @hu 7 6 @hs 7
4 @ x_ @ x_ @ x_ @ x_ 5 4 0
@ x_ @ x_ 5
@hd @hh @hs @hu @hs @hu
@ y_ @ y_ @ y_ @ y_ @ y_ @ y_

with
@hd @hs 2x_
@x ¼ 2x
1 @x ¼ 1
ðx2 þ y2 Þ2 ðx_ 2 þ y_ 2 Þ2
@hd @hs
@y ¼ 2y
1 @y ¼ 2_y
1
ðx2 þ y2 Þ2 ðx_ 2 þ y_ 2 Þ2 ð8Þ
@hh y @hu _y
¼
@x ðx2 þ y2 Þ @x ðx_ þ y_ 2 Þ
2

@hh @hu x_
¼ ðx2 þx y2 Þ ¼
@y @y ðx_ 2 þ y_ 2 Þ
A Track Registration Association Technique – Feature Analysis 7

Since a single timestep may not be reliable, a small window of track points is used
to create an association score
Xwinsize 1
regassocscore ¼ k¼0
v2Reg ðn  kÞ: ð9Þ

The implementation of the metric in the assignment is scaled so that the distances
do not become zero in the exponent and cause computational zeros to be formed. This
causes the order of the matrix to have an effect on the selection. The scale factor is in
the exponent is shown in Eq. (10) where the subscript indicates a two-norm.

kHPpltA H T þ HPpltB H T k2 ð10Þ

3 Feature Analysis

Each of the elements of the feature vector in Eq. (4) provides a portion of the score.
Each has an impact on the score which varies based on the rotation. To analyze this
impact, each feature will be applied alone to the association problem for a variety of
rotation angles. The measure to be used is the correct association.
A three-track scenario, as defined in [5], is used. As seen in Fig. 3, there are two
sensor platforms, each with range-bearing sensors. Platform 1 is located at 300 m north
of the origin point and 100 m east of the origin point. Its sensor has a range accuracy of
0.1 m and a bearing accuracy of 0.0975°. Platform 2 is located at 0m north of the origin
and -100 m east of the origin. Its sensor’s range accuracy is 0.05 m, and its bearing
accuracy is 0.3°. Target 1 performs an S-curve maneuver over the scenario. The second
target flies a straight-line trajectory with constant speed at the beginning of the scenario
followed by a constant acceleration. Target 3 decelerates over a straight-line trajectory.
The window size was selected to be 5.

Fig. 3. A three-target and two-sensor scenario


8 S. C. Stubberud and K. A. Kramer

The performance of each feature is measured for a variety of rotations. These


rotations are 0°, 2°, 5°, 10°, 15°, 20°, 45°, 60°, and 90°.
In Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4, the performance was measured for each feature for the
aforementioned rotation angles. The results were broken down into four different
elements: Correct Association, Missed Associations – Straight Line Target to Straight
Line Target, Missed Associations – Straight Line Target to S-curve Target, All
Associations Wrong.

Table 1. Distance travel feature association performance


Sensor bias Track associations: 30
Angle (deg.) Mis-assoc: Mis-assoc: Mis-assoc: Mis-assoc: All
None (All correct) Straight-to-Straight Straight-to- S-Curve
0 18 0 12 0
2 18 0 12 0
5 22 0 8 0
10 30 0 0 0
15 30 0 0 0
20 29 0 1 0
45 30 0 0 0
60 26 0 4 0
90 18 0 12 0

Table 2. Direction change feature association performance


Sensor bias Track associations: 30
Angle (deg.) Mis-assoc: Mis-assoc: Mis-assoc: Mis-assoc: All
None (All correct) Straight-to-Straight Straight-to- S-Curve
0 2 9 8 11
2 1 9 9 11
5 2 8 15 5
10 12 2 13 3
15 14 2 11 3
20 19 0 8 3
45 26 0 2 2
60 29 0 0 1
90 2 10 7 11
A Track Registration Association Technique – Feature Analysis 9

Table 3. Speed change feature association performance


Sensor bias Track associations: 30
Angle (deg.) Mis-assoc: Mis-assoc: Mis-assoc: Mis-assoc: All
None (All correct) Straight-to-Straight Straight-to- S-Curve
0 25 0 5 0
2 30 0 0 0
5 30 0 0 0
10 30 0 0 0
15 30 0 0 0
20 30 0 0 0
45 28 0 2 0
60 28 0 2 0
90 25 0 5 0

Table 4. Heading feature association performance


Sensor bias Track associations: 30
Angle (deg.) Mis-assoc: Mis-assoc: Mis-assoc: Mis-assoc: All
None (All correct) Straight-to-Straight Straight-to- S-Curve
0 20 9 1 0
2 6 23 1 0
5 7 22 1 0
10 19 10 1 0
15 26 2 2 0
20 26 1 2 1
45 22 1 2 5
60 20 1 8 1
90 4 1 2 23

As can be seen, the most effective single features are the distance-traveled feature,
d, and the speed-change feature, s. These features would provide 81.9% and 94.8%
correct associations on average. The least effective as a solo feature is direction change,
h, at 39.6% average correct associations.

4 Feature Weighting Results

A variety of weighting values for the chi-squared vector features were compared. Based
on the analysis of Sect. 3, Features 1 and 3 were considered exceedingly useful. They
were each given equal weights for all of the comparisons. The direction and heading
features, Features 2 and 4, were varied from values between 0 and 1. Table 5 lists the
correct associations for each angle and an average percentage of correct associations.
10 S. C. Stubberud and K. A. Kramer

As the results show, the weighting can have a small improvement in performance.
If feature weighting were to be used in implementation, a weighting with Features 1
and 3 equally weighted and Feature 2 weighted less than Features 1 and 3 but more
than Feature 4 would be best. All features should be used. The analysis shows that the
technique is effective up to 20 degrees of rotation in most cases and the outrageous
heading error of 90 degrees has deleterious effects. If the 90-degree heading error is not
considered, the top four performing weighting schemes increase to between 95% to
98.75% accuracy.

Table 5. Correct associations based on feature weighting


Angle (deg.) Feature weights (4)
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 0 0 0.5 0.5 0.25 0.5
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 0 0.5 0.5 0 0.5 0.25
0 29 21 30 30 20 30 30
2 29 19 30 30 21 30 30
5 28 24 29 30 26 30 30
10 29 30 29 30 27 30 30
15 29 30 29 30 29 29 30
20 30 30 26 28 28 28 29
45 26 30 25 29 30 27 30
60 28 25 22 25 28 24 28
90 7 21 7 6 20 7 8
Avg. 87.0 85.2 84.1 88.2 84.8 87.0 90.7

5 Conclusion

A new target registration-association scheme was analyzed to determine the effec-


tiveness of the features selected. The analysis showed that individual features of
position change and speed acceleration were the most impactful. When combined in
different weightings, the least impactful individual feature was quite useful. Weighting
of the features used in the association metric can have an impact. This impact appears
to be noticeable but relatively small, approximately 3% absolute improvement.
All features, the distance travelled, the direction change, the speed change, and the
heading angle, should be used in the association score. Further research to improve the
representation where the features both translation and rotation are invariant and
improved weighting techniques are being considered.
A Track Registration Association Technique – Feature Analysis 11

References
1. Blackman, S., Popoli, R.: Design and Analysis of Modern Tracking System. Artech House,
Boston (1999)
2. Bar-Shalom, Y., Blair, W.D. (eds.): Multitarget - Multisensor Tracking: Applications and
Advances, vol. III. Artech House, Boston (2000)
3. Stubberud, S.C.: Track registration using image correlation. In: Proceedings of the 2015
Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, pp. 1–7 (2015)
4. Stanek, C.J., Javidi, B., Yanni, P.: Performance assessment of frequency plane filters applied
to track association and sensor registration. Proc. SPIE 5094, 323–328 (2003)
5. Stanek, C.J.: Gridlocking and correlation methods and arrangements. U.S. Patent
US680399B2 (2004)
6. Stubberud, S.C., Kramer, K.A.: A target registration association technique. In: Submitted to
the IEEE Transactions of Aerospace Electronic Systems (2020)
7. Giernacki, W.: Robust control with optimization of robustness index. In: 2012 IEEE
International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), Seoul, South Korea,
pp. 2389–2394 (2012)
Investigation of Wind Energy Impact on Power
Systems Stability Using Lyapunov Exponents

Mojtaba Amiri1, Maryam Dehghani1, Alireza Khayatian1,


Mohsen Mohammadi2, Navid Vafamand1(&), and Jalil Boudjadar3
1
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
n.vafamand@shirazu.ac.ir, navidvafamand@gmail.com
2
School of Mechanical Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
3
Department of Engineering, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

Abstract. The world tendency is to replace all generators that use fossil fuels
by renewable energy. Although this is a very important step toward keeping the
environment clean, this paper shows that by replacing wind energy by the
conventional generators, the relative stability becomes worse. This does not
mean that the paper is against such replacement, but makes an alert to be aware
of such important issue and to implement appropriate controllers for increasing
the relative stability of the power systems equipped with renewable energy
sources. In this work, a data-driven approach is used to assess the stability of
power grids by just using voltage time-series data. Lyapunov exponent
(LE) index is presented as an effective tool to analyze complex systems stability.
If the maximum LE (MLE) is positive (negative), then the system is unstable
(stable). In the present paper, the MLE is computed for a finite-time interval for
the sample system of the New England 39-Bus system. In the end, the effect of
renewable wind energy on the stability of the system has been investigated and
by substituting the wind farm in different areas of the system, the impact of
adding a wind farm to the system in different locations is found.

Keywords: Lyapunov exponent  Power system  Stability assessment  Wind


energy

1 Introduction

Evaluating the complex power system stability is a critical issue which can be done
through various approaches [1]. The model equations of power systems are highly
nonlinear and these systems are high order systems. There are many approaches to
assess the stability of systems. Many of these methods use the system model. On the
other hand, the nonlinearity of the power systems, as well as the high order of the
systems, is itself a strong reason for the high computational burden which requires
expensive hardware and increases cost. Therefore, the methods that do not use model
equations to analyze stability can be very effective. Because of the importance and
complexity of these systems, the online and model-free voltage stability assessment is
very important.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021


H. Selvaraj et al. (Eds.): ICSEng 2020, LNNS 182, pp. 12–22, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65796-3_2
Investigation of Wind Energy Impact on Power Systems Stability 13

In [2], Liu et al. used LE to evaluate the behavior of power systems for the first
time. By using measurement data, they have measured the transient chaos of the power
system with LE. That method is applied on a three-machine system. In [3], an appli-
cable LE-based approach is suggested for the online stability evaluation of rotor angle
in the presence of perturbations. The method presented in [3] is an extension of the
results achieved by Lui et al. [2]. In [3], the relation of the MLE with the rotor angle
stability in power systems is studied. The effectiveness of that method for the 200-Bus
system has been investigated. In [4], a data-driven approach is developed to assess the
voltage stability in power systems. The algorithm of [4] is an extension of the method
proposed by Rosenstein et al. [5], in which, the LE is used as an indicator for deter-
mining stability. The authors of [6] proposed an algorithm to evaluate the rotor angle
stability of a power system. That approach is not a model-based approach and can use
phasor measurement unit (PMU) fuzzy measurement data. In that algorithm, the LE
measures the degree of convergence or divergence of the rotor angle trajectories. In [7],
a robust stability analysis is performed for a power system by the means of the LE to
analyze the stability of the voltage and rotor angle. The author of [7] calls that method
as “THRUST”. Contrary to references [8, 9] that have been used only for small sys-
tems, the THRUST has been also utilized to evaluate the stability of a small system
(39-Bus) and a very large system (13029-Bus). In [10], Wei et al. proposed a data-
based approach using LE theory to analyze rotor angle stability. The MLE is obtained
by a method based on the recursive least squares from the measured data of the rotor
angles. The results of that study were applied to the Northeast Power Coordinating
Council 140-Bus and the New England 39-Bus systems and have yielded good results.
In [11], Ge et al. presented an improved method of voltage stability assessment. The
effect of voltage fluctuations on the computation procedure of the LE is studied and a
phase correction method is presented to compensate for the negative effects of voltage
fluctuations. Simulations have been carried out on the Guangdong Province Power
Network of China.
In this research, the LE-based method is used for stability assessment. LE is
introduced by Lyapunov [12] and is a powerful and efficient method to analyze the
stability of a power system [13]. LE is calculated by two methods: I) model-based, and
II) model-free (data-driven) [14, 15]. This paper uses a model-free (data-driven) and
online approach of computation of the MLE to analyze the stability of the power
system using only voltage time-series data. If the MLE value is positive, the system is
unstable and if the LE gets a negative value, the system is stable. In other words, this
paper is an extension of [16–19] in assessing system stability using online data from
system, such as PMU data. Moreover, the use of renewable energies power plants
instead of fossil fuel power plants to reduce pollution and costs is increasing. Replacing
a synchronous generator with a renewable energy system reduces the relative stability
of the power system [20–23]. In the present paper, the effect of replacing a wind farm
with a synchronous generator on the stability of a New England 39-Bus system is
investigated. The effect of replacing a wind farm with all of the synchronous generators
of the system is investigated by using an online model-free approach of MLE com-
putation for several different cases. Power system simulations are done by DIgSILENT.
The paper is organized as follows. The low-inertia systems are represented in
Sect. 2. Section 3 represents the Date-Driven-based stability assessment approach.
14 M. Amiri et al.

In Sect. 4, simulation results on the New England 39-Bus system are presented to
assess the effect of substituting a wind farm with a specific synchronous generator of
the system. Finally, the conclusions are in Sect. 5.

2 Low-Inertia Systems

The main purpose of synchronous generators is to generate active power in order to


adjust the frequency and voltage. The inertia of the synchronous generators affects the
dynamic behavior of the system shortly after fault or disturbance in the power balance.
Research has shown that low-inertia generators such as wind turbines that can be used
in a power system instead of synchronous generators, cause the system to be unable to
maintain voltage and frequency of the system in the desired value [20]. Here, a system
with low inertia is examined shortly after a fault occurs. The equation of a conventional
system with both synchronous and non-synchronous generators is as follows [20]:

M x_ ðtÞ ¼ Ps ðtÞ þ Pns ðtÞ  Pl ðtÞ  Pj ðtÞ; ð1Þ

where M shows the total inertia of the system, xðtÞ is average frequency, Pns and Ps
show the active power of non-synchronous and synchronous generators, respectively.
Pl and Pj show the loads and losses, respectively. Bigger values of M increase the
system’s control ability to and robustness against load fluctuations and faults. By
increasing the number of non-synchronous generators, the value of M is reduced,
causing an increase in the frequency fluctuations and even system failure to maintain
the voltage at a certain value. In order investigate this effect, a data-driven tool is used.

3 Data-Driven-Based Stability Assessment

Lyapunov introduced two methods to analyze the systems stability: I) LE-based


approach, II) Lyapunov function-based approach [12]. The second method is very
common, but it is a model-based approach and for stability analysis should have an
accurate model of the system. Additionally, in the second method, finding a proper
Lyapunov function is very challenging. On the other hand, the LE-based method can be
used in both model-based and model-free approaches. In this paper, a model-free
approach is used to assess the stability of the power system in an online procedure. LEs
can convey information about the system relative stability. The largest LE is known as
MLE [24]. The sign of MLE is used for stability investigation. Negative MLE refers to
a stable system, while positive MLE shows instability.
The LE generally shows the rate of separation and closeness of two trajectories
which are initially so close to each other. Two trajectories which are starting from very
close initial conditions may exponentially diverge or may converge to a finite set, such
as a fixed point, a limit cycle, a periodic or quasi-periodic motion, or a chaotic attractor.
Briefly, if the value of k is positive, it indicates that the two trajectories are separated
and if the value of k is negative, two trajectories will become close to each other. This
is called chaotic if the initial conditions are perturbed and the system becomes
Investigation of Wind Energy Impact on Power Systems Stability 15

unpredictable. Attractors of a system with one or more positive LEs are called strange
or chaotic. The LE is highly dependent on the initial conditions of the system.
The pioneer numerical algorithm to compute the MLE of the system from time
series was introduced in [5], which was unable to compute the MLE of the big data and
also this algorithm is not robust to delay time changes. System information can be also
obtained from system state-space equations. In the words, it is not enough to only use
set of time-series data or simply a measurement variable. To solve this problem, the
measurement variables should be increased [25] by embedding data in the m-
dimensional delay coordinates. Suppose voltage time series data is available in the form
fv1 ; v2 ; . . .; vk g, the delay coordinates are as follows:

V i ¼ vi ; vi þ s ; . . .; vi þ ðm1Þs ! V ¼ ðV 1 ; V 2 ; . . .; V M ÞT ; ð2Þ

in which i ¼ 1; . . .; M, M ¼ k  ðm  1Þs, m is the embedding dimension and s is the


reconstruction delay time. If the number of data is infinite and the data are not noisy,
there is no obstacle in choosing any value of s, but the data are often noisy and finite
[26]. The method of calculating m is well described in [27], and here the value of m is
chosen equal to one.
The MLE computation algorithm of this paper is adapted from [4]. MLE is cal-
culated from the time-series data of the grid voltages. In this paper the MLE is shown
by k. Data-driven MLE computation algorithm is provided in Fig. 1, where kðkDtÞ
computes the MLE at time kDt. Vt ¼ v1t ; v2t ; . . .; vnt in (2) displays the time-series data
of the n bus voltages of the system. If the value of the MLE in (2) becomes positive
(negative), the system is unstable (stable).

Fig. 1. Data-driven MLE computation algorithm


16 M. Amiri et al.

4 Simulation Results

The New England 39-Bus system is considered as the case study and simulated in
DIgSILENT for different cases. First of all, stability analysis of this system is inves-
tigated for six cases. Then, by using MLE, the impact of wind energy on the system
stability is investigated for three cases. The New England 39-Bus System has 10
generators, 12 transformers, 39 buses, and 34 lines. This system is a reduced order of
the transmission system in the USA [28].
By using the data-driven approach presented in Fig. 1 to compute the MLE, the
stability is analyzed in six cases which are mentioned below. The MLE is computed
only using bus voltage time-series data.
Case 1)
A short-circuit at 16th bus is simulated and it is cleared after 180 ms.
Case 2)
A short-circuit at 16th bus is simulated and it is cleared after 200 ms.
Case 3)
A short-circuit at 31th bus is simulated and it is cleared after 210 ms.
Case 4)
A short-circuit at 16th bus is simulated and it is cleared after 230 ms.
Case 5)
A short-circuit at the beginning of Line 2–3 is simulated and it is cleared
after 230 ms.
Case 6) A short-circuit at the beginning of Line 2–3 is simulated and it is cleared
after 250 ms.
The 39 bus voltage trajectories in case 1 are shown in Fig. 2 for 10 s. The MLE
evolution of the system in case 1 is shown in Fig. 3. The value of the MLE in this case
became negative and we can realize that the system is stable. It should be mentioned
that the voltage magnitudes are shown in p. u.
The 39 bus voltage trajectories in case 2 are shown in Fig. 4 for 5 s. Figure 5
shows the MLE evolution of the system in case 2. The value of the MLE, in this case,
became positive and one can realize that the system is unstable.

Fig. 2. 39 bus voltage magnitudes in p.u. in case 1


Investigation of Wind Energy Impact on Power Systems Stability 17

Fig. 3. The evolution of the MLE of the system in case 1

Fig. 4. 39 bus voltage magnitudes in p. u. in case 2

Fig. 5. The evolution of the MLE of the system in case 2


18 M. Amiri et al.

The 39 bus voltage trajectories in case 3 are given in Fig. 6 for 5 s. Figure 7
illustrates the MLE evolution of the system for the case 3. As can be seen in Fig. 7, the
value of the MLE, in this case, became negative and one can realize that the system is
stable. The simulation results of the other cases for 5 s are shown in Table 1.

Fig. 6. 39 bus voltage magnitudes in p. u. in case 3

Fig. 7. The evolution of the MLE of the system in case 3

Table 1. Simulation results of six cases


Cases The MLE values after 5 s Stability
Case 1 −0.3144 Stable
Case 2 +0.6408 Unstable
Case 3 −0.3316 Stable
Case 4 +0.4984 Unstable
Case 5 −0.6119 Stable
Case 6 +0.5918 Unstable
Investigation of Wind Energy Impact on Power Systems Stability 19

For an investigation of wind energy impact on the power system stability, each of
the synchronous generators of the 39-Bus system is replaced by a wind farm,
respectively, and the impact of this substitution is investigated in three cases. It should
be mentioned that the New England 39-Bus system is stable in these three cases when
the substitution is not done. By calculating the MLE of the system using voltage time-
series data, we can analyze the stability of the system in each case. The three cases are
as follows:
Case 1) A short-circuit at 16th Bus is simulated and is cleared after 180 ms.
Case 2) A short-circuit at 31th Bus is simulated and is cleared after 210 ms.
Case 3) A short-circuit at the beginning of “Line 02–03” is simulated and by
switching off the faulted line, this fault is cleared after 230 ms.
Wind farms are connected to the New England 39-Bus system in parallel with
synchronous generators as given in Fig. 8. Each of the synchronous generators is
replaced with a wind farm specified by the active power generation capacity same as
the original generator and the impact of this substitution is investigated by computation
of the MLE of the system using voltage time-series data in 5 s for 3 mentioned cases.
The results of this substitution of the wind farm with synchronous generators are shown
in Table 2. The table shows values of the MLE after 5 s.

Fig. 8. Parallel connection of wind farm with a synchronous generator to the system
20 M. Amiri et al.

Table 2. The MLE values of the system in different cases after 5 s


MLE
Case 1 Case 2 Case 3
Without DFIG −0.3144 −0.3316 −0.6119
Replacing with G1 +0.6591 +0.6971 +0.7543
Replacing with G2 −0.1594 −0.1654 −0.1691
Replacing with G3 +0.5441 +0.3658 +0.3702
Replacing with G4 +0.6927 +0.4920 +0.4721
Replacing with G5 +0.6556 +0.4469 +0.3719
Replacing with G6 +0.7842 +0.4183 +0.3702
Replacing with G7 +0.1241 +0.5167 +0.5016
Replacing with G8 +0.6477 +0.5318 +0.5549
Replacing with G9 −0.2114 −0.2773 −0.3160
Replacing with G10 +0.4785 +0.6119 +1.0570

The MLE values in the table show that with the displacement of the wind farm in
areas of the system, in most cases, the system becomes unstable and, in some cases, the
relative stability is decreased.
As shown in Table 2, by substitution of 39 buses system synchronous generators in
most cases, the MLE became positive and in two cases reduced relative system sta-
bility. According to this table, the Lyapunov exponent theory can be utilized as a tool
for locating the wind farm.

5 Conclusion

In this paper, first, the low-inertia systems in introduced. Then, the Lyapunov exponent
theorem is introduced and by using the model-free method of computation of the MLE,
the stability of the system is analyzed. It is observed that this method can assess the
stability of power systems in an online manner with low computational burden. Then,
by replacing the wind farm with each of the synchronous generators of a power system,
system stability is evaluated. It is found that these substitutions may reduce relative
stability or make the system unstable. This study proves the importance of controller
design strategies when the renewable energy sources are added to the power system.

References
1. Liu, M., Bizzarri, F., Brambilla, A.M., Milano, F.: On the impact of the dead-band of power
system stabilizers and frequency regulation on power system stability. IEEE Trans. Power
Syst. 34, 3977–3979 (2019)
2. Liu, C.-W., Thorp, J.S., Lu, J., Thomas, R.J., Chiang, H.-D.: Detection of transiently chaotic
swings in power systems using real-time phasor measurements. IEEE Trans. Power Syst. 9
(3), 1285–1292 (1994)
Investigation of Wind Energy Impact on Power Systems Stability 21

3. Yan, J., Liu, C.-C., Vaidya, U.: PMU-based monitoring of rotor angle dynamics. IEEE
Trans. Power Syst. 26(4), 2125–2133 (2011)
4. Dasgupta, S., Paramasivam, M., Vaidya, U., Ajjarapu, V.: Real-time monitoring of short-
term voltage stability using PMU data. IEEE Trans. Power Syst. 28(4), 3702–3711 (2013)
5. Rosenstein, M.T., Collins, J.J., De Luca, C.J.: A practical method for calculating largest
Lyapunov exponents from small data sets. Physica D 65(1–2), 117–134 (1993)
6. Dasgupta, S., Paramasivam, M., Vaidya, U., Ajjarapu, V.: PMU-based model-free approach
for real-time rotor angle monitoring. IEEE Trans. Power Syst. 30(5), 2818–2819 (2014)
7. Khaitan, S.K.: THRUST: a Lyapunov exponents based robust stability analysis method for
power systems. In: 2017 North American Power Symposium (NAPS), pp. 1–6. IEEE (2017)
8. Verdejo, H., Vargas, L., Kliemann, W.: Stability of linear stochastic systems via Lyapunov
exponents and applications to power systems. Appl. Math. Comput. 218(22), 11021–11032
(2012)
9. Dasgupta, S., Paramasivam, M., Vaidya, U., Ajjarapu, V.: PMU-based model-free approach
for short term voltage stability monitoring. In: 2012 IEEE Power and Energy Society
General Meeting, pp. 1–8. IEEE (2012)
10. Wei, S., Yang, M., Qi, J., Wang, J., Ma, S., Han, X.: Model-free MLE estimation for online
rotor angle stability assessment with PMU data. IEEE Trans. Power Syst. 33(3), 2463–2476
(2017)
11. Ge, H., et al.: An improved real-time short-term voltage stability monitoring method based
on phase rectification. IEEE Trans. Power Syst. 33(1), 1068–1070 (2017)
12. Lyapunov, A.M.: The general problem of the stability of motion. Int. J. Control 55(3), 531–
534 (1992)
13. Amiri, M., Dehghani, M., Khayatian, A., Mohammadi, M.: Lyapunov exponent based
stability assessment of power systems. In: 2019 6th International Conference on Control,
Instrumentation and Automation (ICCIA), pp. 1–5. IEEE (2019)
14. Khodadadi, H., Khaki-Sedigh, A., Ataei, M., Jahed-Motlagh, M.R.: Applying a modified
version of Lyapunov exponent for cancer diagnosis in biomedical images: the case of breast
mammograms. Multidimensional Syst. Signal Process. 29(1), 19–33 (2016)
15. Pikovsky, A., Politi, A.: Lyapunov exponents: a tool to explore complex dynamics.
Cambridge University Press, New York (2016)
16. Dehghani, M., Shayanfard, B., Khayatian, A.R.: PMU ranking based on singular value
decomposition of dynamic stability matrix. IEEE Trans. Power Syst. 28(3), 2263–2270
(2013)
17. Shayanfard, B., Dehghani, M., Khayatian, A.: Optimal PMU placement for full observability
and dynamic stability assessment. In: 2011 19th Iranian Conference on Electrical
Engineering, pp. 1–6. IEEE (2011)
18. Mohammadi, H., Khademi, G., Dehghani, M., Simon, D.: Voltage stability assessment using
multi-objective biogeography-based subset selection. Int. J. Electric. Power Energy Syst.
103, 525–536 (2018)
19. Mohammadi, H., Khademi, G., Simon, D., Dehghani, M.: Multi-objective optimization of
decision trees for power system voltage security assessment. In: 2016 Annual IEEE Systems
Conference (SysCon), pp. 1–6. IEEE (2016)
20. Milano, F., Dörfler, F., Hug, G., Hill, D.J., Verbič, G.: Foundations and challenges of low-
inertia systems. In: 2018 Power Systems Computation Conference (PSCC), pp. 1–25. IEEE
(2018)
21. Toor, A., et al.: Energy and performance aware fog computing: a case of DVFS and green
renewable energy. Future Gener. Comput. Syst. 101, 1112–1121 (2019)
22. Khooban, M.H., Vafamand, N., Boudjadar, J.: Tracking control for hydrogen fuel cell
systems in zero-emission ferry ships. Complexity 2019 (2019)
22 M. Amiri et al.

23. Vafamand, N., Khooban, M.H., Dragičević, T., Boudjadar, J., Asemani, M.H.: Time-delayed
stabilizing secondary load frequency control of shipboard microgrids. IEEE Syst. J. 13(3),
3233–3241 (2019)
24. Best, E.A.: Stability Assessment of Nonlinear Systems Using the Lyapunov Exponent. Ohio
University, Athens (2003)
25. Takens, F.: Detecting strange attractors in turbulence. In: Dynamical Systems and
Turbulence, Warwick 1980, pp. 366–381. Springer (1981)
26. Fraser, A.M., Swinney, H.L.: Independent coordinates for strange attractors from mutual
information. Phy. Rev. A 33(2), 1134 (1986)
27. Kennel, M.B., Brown, R., Abarbanel, H.D.: Determining embedding dimension for phase-
space reconstruction using a geometrical construction. Phys. Rev. A 45(6), 3403 (1992)
28. Pai, M.: Energy Function Analysis for Power System Stability. Springer, New York (2012)
Motor Current Signature Analysis Using
Shapelet

Maryam Iraji1, Maryam Dehghani1, Mohsen Mohammadi2,


Navid Vafamand1(&), and Jalil Boudjadar3
1
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
n.vafamand@shirazu.ac.ir
2
School of Mechanical Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
3
Department of Engineering, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

Abstract. In the contemporary industrial world, induction motors have special


place in the technological advancements. Therefore, detecting faults in these
systems is gaining more and more attentions. This paper proposes a new
approach for the fault detection and classification in induction motors. In the
developed approach, shapelet concept is employed. The main distinguished
advantage of shapelet is that they can extract features in dataset based on a local
shape-similarity. To make the suggested shapelet algorithm more accurate and
efficient, a new criterion for the minimum and maximum number of all classes
members is introduced. Compared to the previous shapelet feature extraction
techniques, the proposed technique has high accuracy and speed. For case study
of a sample induction motor, which is performed in healthy and broken rotor bar
situations, the shapelet approach is exploited to identify any possible faults.
Simulation results show the satisfactory performance of the suggested shapelet
technique for detecting broken rotor bar fault.

Keywords: Shapelet algorithm  Fault detection  Induction motor faults

1 Introduction

Fault detection methods become one of the most critical issues as in the most parts of
industry, faults are likely to occur and it can cause devastating damage in equipments.
In this situation using methods that can detect fault accurately and fast is very
important. Shapelet is a machine learning method that can find local shape-based
differences in signals accurately and fast. So Shapelet method can be employed as one
of the most accurate way to detect faults. In 2009, Eamonn Keogh et al. introduced
shapelet concept as a new classification method for the first time [1]. After that pioneer
work, the shapelet attracts a lot of attention because of its advantages. For instance, the
shapelet can classify datasets high accurately; it can gain some insight into the data; and
it works in both time and frequency domains [1]. Some extensions of the approach of
[1] are logical-shapelet concept [2], shapelet transform [3], unsupervised-shapelet (U-
shapelet), which is a novel method for clustering data [4], and multivariate shapelet
detection (MSD) for multivariate time series [5]. As Shapelet algorithm can recognize
local shape differences, it has been successfully applied on various systems to find

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021


H. Selvaraj et al. (Eds.): ICSEng 2020, LNNS 182, pp. 23–33, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65796-3_3
24 M. Iraji et al.

faulty behaviors [6–8]. However, the process of selecting a proper shapelet is very
time-consuming and needs a high computational burden.
Until now, a wide variety of fault detection methods have been presented for the
induction motors (IMs). The IMs are widely exploited in industry, as they are highly
robust and have low cost maintenance, power efficiency and reliability. Though,
continuous care should be taken for their maintenance as the environmental situation
could cause serious faults, like broken rotor bar or shorted stator winding in the IM
systems [9–11]. The fault detection methods can be classified in two ways; invasive and
non-invasive methods [12]. Motor current signature analysis (MCSA) is one of the
popular non-invasive methods. Cusido et al. developed a method that use the convo-
lution of wavelet-based functions [13]. However, to the best knowledge of the authors,
the application of shapelet method in the IMs is not investigated yet, which is the main
motivation of this work.
In this paper, shapelet algorithm with new criteria for the maximum and minimum
number of all class members, is employed for online fault detection and classification in
the IMs. These criteria are defined based on the distance of timeseries from each other
and the number of timeseries that are closer to shapelet candidate than the other ones.
To show the merits of the suggested approach, a train dataset is made by simulating a
normal IM. Then, a type of fault is exerted on the train dataset. The proposed
shapelet algorithm with new criteria is used to discover proper shapelet in order to
detect and classify occurring faults of the IM, accurately. Finally, the chosen shapelet is
utilized to detect faults on a numerical IM system.
The rest of the paper is organized as follow; in Sects. 2 and 3, the study tools for
this paper such as the theory of shapelet and the model of IMs are elaborated. In
Sect. 4, new criteria for shapelet algorithm and the novel method for fault detection and
classification are proposed. In Sect. 5, the case study is presented that consists an IM
with healthy condition and broken rotor fault. Then, the shapelet are utilized in each of
these situations and fault is detected. Section 6 consists of the conclusion about using
shapelet for fault detection.

2 Theory of Shapelet

A time series is a temporal ordered list of real-valued data that is recorded in a fixed
interval. Suppose there is a set of n time series T ¼ fT1 T2 . . .Tn g, where each Ti has
m samples Ti ¼ hti1 ti2 . . .tim i. For the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that all series in
dataset have the same length. Though, inspired by [14], the results of this paper can be
extended to the case that the series do not have the same length. Shapelet is a subset of
one of the time series in the dataset and it is employed to extract a specific feature of
each class, in order to find the best touchstone for achieving fast and accurate classi-
fication. Shapelet is used for finding local shape-based similarity, so shapelet must be
normalized and non-variable to scale and offset [14]. Generally, the shapelet discovery
has three main steps
Motor Current Signature Analysis Using Shapelet 25

2.1 Generating Candidates


There are time series with length m and the goal is to find a candidate with length l and
l can change in the range of ½min; max, while min  3 and max  m. All normalized
subseries of Ti that have l samples are put in Wi;l and Wi;l for all time series of T are
collected in Wl . Finally, collection of Wl for all possible amount of l for dataset T is W.
     
Wi;l ¼ ti;1 ; . . .; ti;l ; ti;2 ; . . .; ti;l þ 1 ; . . .; ti;ml þ 1 ; . . .; ti;m ð1Þ
 
Wl ¼ W1;l [ W2;l [ . . . [ Wn;l ð2Þ

W ¼ fWmin [ . . . [ Wmax g ð3Þ

2.2 Shapelet Distance Calculation


The distance between two subseries with the same length by square Euclidean distance
is calculated as

X
m
distðS; RÞ ¼ ðsi  ri Þ2 ð4Þ
i¼1

where S and R are time series, si and ri are their components and m is their length. For
computing the distance between a time series by length m and a subseries by the length
l, while l  m, minimum amount of squared Euclidean distance between normalized
subseries S and all normalized subseries inside Ti with the same length as the S (each of
then is named as R) must be found.

dSi ¼ min distðS; RÞ ð5Þ


R2Wi;l

The list of distance between the shapelet candidate S and the time series T is:
 
DS ¼ dS;1 ; dS;2 ; . . .; dS;n ð6Þ

2.3 Shapelet Assessment


The purpose of shapelet assessment is to determine how accurate this shapelet classifies
the dataset based on DS . For specifying the quality of shapelet, information gain (IG) is
used as a basic method for the shapelet assessment [7]. In this manner, DS is put in
order and IG must be calculated for each split point sp, where a split point is the
average between each two consecutive distances in Ds . For calculating the IG of each
26 M. Iraji et al.

sp, DS must be divided into AS and BS . The AS consists of all distances of DS \sp and
the BS consists of the rest of distances. So, the IG of sp is
 
jAS j jBS j
IGðDS ; spÞ ¼ H ðDS Þ  H ðAS Þ þ H ðBS Þ ð7Þ
jBS j jDS j

where jDS j is the number of all members in DS and HðDS Þ is defined as

H ðDS Þ ¼ pðAS Þ logðpðAS ÞÞ  pðBS Þ logðpðBS ÞÞ ð8Þ

where pðAs Þ and pðBs Þ are the proportion of objects in classes As and Bs with respect to
the overall dataset, respectively as

pðAs Þ ¼ jAs j=jDs j; pðBs Þ ¼ jBs j=jDs j ð9Þ

The IG for the candidate S, (i.e. IGS ) is

IGS ¼ max IGðDS s; pÞ ð10Þ


sp2Ds

Optimal Split Point (OPS) is the sp for which the IGS has the maximum value.

3 Modeling Faults in Induction Motors

In this section, dynamical representation of the IM in the healthy and broken rotor bars
situations are presented. An IM is an extremely symmetrical electromagnetic system.
Fault leads to a specified percent of asymmetry. So, broken rotor bars by inducting a
specific degree of unbalancing are modelled in the rotor parameters [15].

3.1 Model of Healthy Induction Machine


In the qd0 reference frame, the IM system is modelled by the following differential
equations of the voltages:
2 3
0 1 0
4 1 dkqd0
Vsqd0 ¼ rsqd0 iqd0
s þ x 0 0 5kqd0
s þ s
ð11Þ
dt
0 0 0
2 3
0 1 0
4 dkqd0
Vrqd0 ¼ rrqd0 iqd0
r þ ðx  xr Þ 1 0 0 5kqd0
r þ
r
ð12Þ
dt
0 0 0
Motor Current Signature Analysis Using Shapelet 27

where x ¼ dh=dt, xr ¼ dhr =dt; rs;r


qd0
¼ rs;r I3 and
2 3
L11 0 0 L14 0 0
 6 0 L22 0 0 L25 0 7
6 7 qd0
kqd0 6 0 0 L33 0 0 0 7 is
s ¼6 7 qd0 ð13Þ
kqd0 6 L41 0 0 L44 0 0 7 ir
r 4 0 L52 0 0 L55 0 5
0 0 0 0 0 L66

The elements of Lij are elaborated in [15].

3.2 Model of Induction Machine with Broken Rotor Bars


Broken rotor bar causes asymmetry in the IM rotor and it leads to non-symmetrical
stator current distribution, so unbalanced current is the reason of breaking other rotor
bars during long time [11]. In broken rotor bar fault in induction motor, rotor becomes
asymmetric by changing in rr
2 3
rr11 rr12 rr13
rrnew ¼ rr þ 4 rr21 rr22 rr23 5 ð14Þ
rr31 rr31 rr33

The elements of Drrqd0 are found in [15].

4 Proposed Approach

The proposed method has two main parts. The first part is the offline process that
consists of modeling the IM and its faults in order to make a comprehensive train
dataset. In addition, new criteria for specifying the number of members in all classes
are proposed for the shapelet algorithm described in Sect. 2. In the second part, the
obtained shapelet is employed to detect faults online.

4.1 Offline Step


This step consists of two main processes: generating train dataset and shapelet dis-
covery. The first requirement for finding shapelet is to generate a comprehensive train
dataset that includes all kinds of time series from all operating situations. For the
application of the fault detection of IMs, the train dataset consists of two healthy IM
and IM with broken rotor bar (BRB) fault working situations. A sample filtered and
normalized Fourier transform of stator current of phase a for healthy IM and an IM with
broken rotor bars is shown in Fig. 1. It is obvious from Fig. 1 that whenever each type
of fault is applied to the IM, several peaks appear in frequencies around the supply
frequency. The difference in their shapes is a good criterion for detection and classi-
fication of occurring faults. Therefore, shapelet can be utilized to classify the differ-
ences in the shapes of the time series.
28 M. Iraji et al.

Fig. 1. Filtered and normalized Fourier transform of stator current: (a) healthy condition (b) IM
with broken rotor bars.

In the conventional shapelet algorithm, which is given in Sect. 2, the number of


members in the classes are not predefined. For a dataset that consists of several classes
two of which have with negligible differences, if no limit is exerted on the maximum
number of members in each class, the shapelet algorithm may not distinguish these two
classes. Otherwise, if no limit is determined for the minimum number of members in
each class, a sample class with various members and small difference among its own
members may be considered as a different class. Thereby, it is necessary to choose the
number of classes members systematically. To achieve this goal, the minimum number
of each class member is considered as Minn .it can be written as [10]:

Minn ¼ D=ðk þ 1Þ ð16Þ

where k is the number of classes, n is the number of members for each class and D is
the number of all members in dataset.
The maximum number of each class is considers as Maxn and it can be calculated
by

M ¼ maxððk  1ÞD=2k  1; D=kÞ ð17Þ

Maxn ¼ maxðM; Minn þ floor ðM  Minn =2ÞÞ ð18Þ

The algorithm of calculating Minn and Maxn is shown in Fig. 2. As can be seen in
Fig. 2, the Minn are calculated from (16) and at the first step. After that, M must be
calculated from (17) and the value of Maxn is achieved by it. The algorithm of IG
calculation based on the Minn and Maxn is provided in Fig. 3. In comparison with the
conventional IG algorithm, this algorithm considers a range for numbers of objects in
each class. In the algorithm that is shown in Fig. 3, if the number of remaining objects
is less than Maxn , all of them must be put in DA and DB is provided with artificial
objects that do not exist in the dataset. Also, the split point (sp) is considered as a
summation of maximum distance and 2=3 of the last shapelet’s split point.
Motor Current Signature Analysis Using Shapelet 29

Fig. 2. The algorithm of calculating Minn and Maxn

4.2 Online Step


In this step, first it must be determined whether fault is happened in IM or not. If yes, is
it BRB or none of them? In order to do it, a detection and classification method is
proposed. In this method, firstly, the distance vector between Fourier transform of
stator current and shapelet are calculated. Secondly, each array of this vector is com-
pared to the threshold of the corresponding shapelet. If the array is not less than
threshold, it must be eliminated. Third, minimum of the remaining arrays is chosen and
its corresponding shapelet is considered as this stator current time series feature. If this
shapelet is a representative of healthy IM class, it means fault has not happened. If the
chosen shapelet belongs to IM with BRB fault class, it means this fault has happened in
IM. If all of the arrays are eliminated, it means IM is faulty but the type of fault is not
broken rotor bar. The algorithm of the proposed method is shown in Fig. 4.
30 M. Iraji et al.

Fig. 3. The algorithm of calculating IG based on Minn and Maxn

5 Case Study

At the first step, a 50 Hz, 6 poles, three phase induction motor is modelled in healthy
situation based on [13]. A dataset of Fourier transform of stator current for phase a, for
healthy condition and 6 broken rotor bar condition are made for train dataset. It consists
of 50 series in frequency domain. This dataset is shown in Fig. 5.
Shapelet Algorithm with new criteria is employed in this step, in order to find best
shapelet for accurate classification. For each condition of the induction motor, a
specific shapelet is found. The shapelets of healthy motor and motor with BRB fault are
Motor Current Signature Analysis Using Shapelet 31

presented in Fig. 6. It is obvious that the shapelet of IM with broken rotor bar fault
consists peaks of signal that caused by fault. on the other hand, the shapelet of
Healthy IM consists smooth signal without peaks. After finding Shapelets, a test dataset
with 800 time series is made for performance evolution. This dataset consist of 400
timeseries in healthy situation and 400 timeseries for IM with 6 broken rotor bars. The
test dataset is shown in Fig. 7. Finally, discovered Shapelets are used to classify test
dataset, the algorithm of the proposed method for classification is shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4. Algorithm of the proposed method

Fig. 5. The train dataset

Fig. 6. (a) Shapelet of healthy IM (b) Shapelet of IM with 6 broken rotor bars
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Chapter Four: A Change of Venue
On reaching Swansea French looked up Superintendent Howells
at the police station.
“Glad to see you, Mr. French,” the superintendent greeted him.
“I’ve known your name for a considerable time and since I heard you
were down over this job I’ve been hoping we should meet. That
Neath report any good to you?”
“I think so,” French answered. “It sounds promising, at all events.
On the strength of it I’ve come in to ask for your help.”
“That’s all right. What do you want us to do?”
“I want to trace the lorry your man saw out at Neath. I’ve got his
description of it, and I must say that, seeing he suspected nothing at
the time, he observed it pretty closely. A smart man,
Superintendent.”
“I’m glad you think so, Inspector. Right. I’ll put through a call to all
stations immediately.”
“Splendid. And can you ask Superintendent Griffiths at Llanelly to
advise the Carmarthen men also?”
The necessary circular drafted, the two chatted for some minutes
until French excused himself on the ground that since he was at
Swansea he might as well have a look round the town.
“There’s not much to see in it, Mr. French,” Howells rejoined, “but
Mumbles is worth visiting. I should advise you to take a bus there
and walk round the Head and back by Langland. If you’re fond of a
bit of good coast you’ll enjoy it. You’ll have plenty of time before we
get any replies. Sorry I can’t go with you, but I’m full up here.”
French went out, and after a stroll through some of the principal
streets got on board a bus for Mumbles. There he took the walk
Superintendent Howells had recommended. He enjoyed every
minute of it. As he left the houses behind and the road began to rise
up the side of the cliff he felt he was having one of the
compensations of a country case. He walked up through the long
rock cutting until at the top the wide expanse of the Bristol Channel
came into view, with the islands and lighthouse off the Head in the
foreground. There was some wind and the deep blue of the sea was
flecked with white. He stood and watched three outward-bound
steamers pitching gently in the swell, the smoke from their stacks
trailing away east. Then he took the footpath round the cliffs, rising
high round Rams Tor and dropping again to Langland Bay, from
which another road led across the neck of the peninsula back into
Mumbles. It was getting on towards five when he returned to the
police station.
“You’ve come at the right time, Inspector,” Superintendent
Howells greeted him. “I’ve just had two pieces of news. Your lorry
was seen twice. About five o’clock on Monday evening, 22nd August,
the evening in question, it was seen by one of our men passing
through Morriston. Morriston is a town some two miles north of
Swansea; indeed, it is really a suburb. The lorry came from the
Swansea direction and turned east at Morriston towards Neath. It
was then carrying the tarpaulin-covered object.”
“Then it started from Swansea?”
“Looks like it. And it looks as if it finished up at Swansea also. It
was seen again on the following morning. About ten o’clock a patrol
saw a breakdown lorry coming towards Swansea along the
Pontardulais road. It corresponded with the description in every
respect except that it was carrying the tarpaulin only.”
“By Jove! Superintendent, that’s good. It won’t be long till we run
it to earth. I take it there are not many breakdown lorries in
Swansea.”
“Give you a list in half an hour.” He touched a bell. “Here,
Thomas, start in and ring up all the local garages and find out how
many have repair lorries. You know what I mean, fitted with cranes.
And see here. You needn’t worry about any with fixed jibs—only
those that can be raised and lowered. Got that?”
The constable saluted smartly and withdrew. Howells turned to
French and was beginning a remark, when his desk telephone rang.
“Yes. Superintendent Howells speaking. . . . Yes. . . .
Gorseinon. . . . Yes. . . . What time was that? . . . Very good, I’ve got
you.” He rang off. “There’s another, Mr. French. I think you’re all right
this time. At half past twelve that same Monday night a patrol found
your lorry in another lane, also hidden by trees. It was a mile or so
east of a little place called Gorseinon: that’s about five miles
northeast of Loughor. It was standing in the lane and the driver was
working at his engine. Our men stopped and spoke, and the driver
said he had been on a job out beyond Llandilo and was returning to
Swansea. The description matches and the crate was then on the
lorry.”
“Fine!” French exclaimed. “That settles it. He was evidently going
round killing time until it was late enough to throw in the crate. Could
we fix his course from all those places you mentioned?”
“Pretty nearly, I think. Here is a map of the district. He seems to
have just made a circle from Swansea to Loughor via Morriston,
Neath, Pontardawe and Gorseinon: say twenty-five miles altogether.
Goodness knows how he returned, but it may have been through
Bynea and Pontardulais. We may take it he made another détour,
anyhow.”
“He made a blunder going with the lorry in that open way,” French
said, grimly.
“I don’t see what else he could have done. But I bet he wasn’t
worrying much about being seen. He was banking on the crate not
being found.”
“You’re right, and on odds he was justified. It was by a pretty thin
chance that it was discovered. I was saying that to Nield—how the
one unlikely chance that a man overlooks or discounts is the one
that gets him.”
“That’s a fact, Inspector, and it’s lucky for us it is so. I remember
once when——”
But French was not destined to hear the superintendent’s
reminiscence. The telephone bell once again rang stridently.
“Got it in one,” Howells observed after listening to the message.
“There is only one lorry in Swansea fitted with a movable crane, and
it is owned by Messrs. Llewellyn of Fisher Street. Moreover, it was
hired about four o’clock on the afternoon of that Monday, twenty-
second August, and returned next morning. Will you see them now?
If so, I’ll come along and show you the place.”
They soon reached Fisher Street, where was a large garage
bearing the name, “The Stepney Motor Car Co.” The superintendent,
entering, asked for Mr. Llewellyn.
The proprietor looked thrilled when he learned French’s business.
“By Jove! You don’t say that that crate was carried on my lorry!”
he exclaimed. “I read about its discovery, and a dam’ good tale it
made. How did you find out so much?”
“I’ve not proved anything,” French replied. “The whole thing is
pure suspicion. But you may lead me to certainty. I’d be obliged if
you would tell me what took place.”
“Surely. I’ll tell you all I can, but it won’t be much.” He opened a
daybook and ran down the items. “The 22nd of August,” he went on.
“Yes, here it is. We hired out the lorry on that date. But it was
ordered beforehand. We got a letter several days before from
London from one of the big hotels, signed Stewart, asking if we had
a breakdown lorry for hire, and if so, at what rate. It particularised
one with a movable jib which would pick up a load from the ground
and set it on the lorry table. The machine would be wanted on the
afternoon of the 22nd for one day only. If we agreed, the writer’s man
would call for it about four on that afternoon and would return it
before midday on the 23rd. As the writer was a stranger, he would be
willing to deposit whatever sum we thought fair as a guaranty. The
lorry was wanted to pick up a special machine which the writer was
expecting by sea from London, and carry it to his place in Brecknock,
where it was to be lowered on to a foundation. As it was part of an
invention he was perfecting, he didn’t want any strangers about. He
made it a condition, therefore, that his man would drive.
“It wasn’t a very usual request, but it seemed reasonable enough,
and of course it was none of my business what he wanted the
machine for. At first I wasn’t very keen on letting it go, but I thought if
he would pay a deposit of three hundred pounds and five pounds for
the hire, I should be safely covered. It was only a Ford ton truck with
the crane added. I wrote him the conditions and he replied agreeing
to the figures and asking that the lorry should be ready at the hour
mentioned.
“At the time stated a man came in and said he had been sent for
the machine by his employer, Mr. Stewart. He produced the three
hundred pounds and I gave him a receipt. Then he drove away.
“Next day about ten-thirty he came back and said he had got
done earlier than he expected. I had the lorry examined, and when I
found it was all right I paid him back two hundred and ninety-five
pounds. He returned me my receipt and went out, and that was all
about it.”
“It’s a pleasure to get a clear statement like that, Mr. Llewellyn,”
French said, with his friendly smile, “and it’s surprising how seldom
one does get it. There are just one or two further points I should like
information on. Have you got those letters from the London hotel?”
“No, I’m afraid they’re destroyed. They were kept until the
transaction was finished and then burned.”
“But you have the address?”
“Mr. John F. Stewart, St. Pancras Hotel, London.”
“You might give me the dates of the correspondence.”
This also the owner was able to do, and French added them to
his notes.
“Can you describe the hand they were written in?”
“They were typewritten.”
“Purple or black ribbon?”
Mr. Llewellyn hesitated.
“Black, I think, but I couldn’t be sure.”
“Now about the driver. Can you describe him?”
“He was a middling tall man, middling stout also. His hair was red
and his complexion fresh, and he wore glasses.”
“His dress?”
“I could hardly describe it. He was dressed like a well-to-do
labourer or a small jobbing contractor or something of that sort. He
was untidy and I remember thinking that he wanted a shave pretty
badly. I took him for a gardener or general man about a country
place.”
“You couldn’t guess where he had come from by his accent?”
“No, I couldn’t tell. He wasn’t local, but that’s all I could say.”
“The same man came back next day?”
“Yes.”
“Had you any conversation with him on either occasion?”
“No, except that he explained about lowering the machine on to
the foundation, same as in the letter.”
This seemed to French to be all he could get, and after some
further talk he and the superintendent took their leave.
“He’s loaded up the crate here in Swansea, at all events,” French
exclaimed when they were in the street. “That seems to postulate
docks and stations. I wonder if I can trespass still further on your
good nature, Superintendent?”
“Of course. I’ll send men round first thing to-morrow. It’s too late
to-night; all the places would be shut.”
“Thanks. Then I’ll turn up early in the morning.”
At the nearest telegraph office French sent a message to the
Yard to have enquiries made at the St. Pancras Hotel as to the
mysterious Mr. John F. Stewart. Then, tired from his exertions, he
returned to his hotel at Burry Port.
Early next morning he was back in Swansea. It was decided that
with a constable who knew the docks he, French, was to apply at the
various steamship offices, while other men were to try the railway
stations and road transport agencies. If these failed, the local firms
and manufacturers who usually sent out their products in crates were
to be called on. French did not believe that the search would be
protracted.
This view speedily proved correct. He had visited only three
offices when a constable arrived with a message. News of the crate
had been obtained at the Morriston Road Goods Station.
Fifteen minutes later French reached the place. He was met at
the gate by Sergeant Jefferies, who had made the discovery.
“I asked in the goods office first, sir,” the sergeant explained, “but
they didn’t remember anything there. Then I came out to the yard
and began enquiring from the porters. At the fifth shot I found a man
who remembered loading the crate. I didn’t question him further, but
sent you word.”
“That was right, Sergeant. We shall soon get what we want. This
the man?”
“Yes, sir.”
French turned to a thick set man in the uniform of a goods porter,
who was standing expectantly by.
“Good day,” he said, pleasantly. “I want to know what you can tell
me about that crate that was loaded upon a crane lorry about six
weeks ago.”
“I can’t tell you nothing about it except that I helped for to get it
loaded up,” the porter answered. “I was trucking here when Mr.
Evans came up; he’s one o’ the clerks, you understand. Well, he
came up and handed me a waybill and sez: ‘Get out that crate,’ he
sez, ‘an’ get it loaded up on this lorry,’ he sez. So I calls two or three
o’ the boys to give me a hand and we gets it loaded up. An’ that’s all
I knows about it.”
“That’s all right. Now just take me along to Mr. Evans, will you?”
The man led the way across the yard to the office. Mr. Evans was
only a junior, but this fact did not prevent French from treating him
with his usual courtesy. He explained that the youth had it in his
power to give him valuable help for which he would be very grateful.
The result was that Evans instantly became his eager ally, willing to
take any trouble to find out what was required.
The youth remembered the details of the case. It appeared that
shortly after four o’clock one afternoon some five or six weeks
previously a man called for a crate. He was of rather above medium
height and build, with reddish hair and a high colour and wore
glasses. He sounded to Evans like a Londoner. At all events, he was
not a native. Evans had looked up the waybills and had found that a
package had been invoiced to some one of the name given. The
crate answered the man’s description, and was carriage paid and
addressed, “To be called for.” Evans had, therefore, no hesitation in
letting him have it. Unfortunately, he could not remember the
stranger’s name, but he would search for it through the old waybills.
He vanished for a few minutes, then returned with a bulky volume
which he set down triumphantly before French.
“There you are,” he exclaimed, pointing to an item. “ ‘Mr. James
S. Stephenson, Great Western Railway Goods Station, Morriston
Road, Swansea. To be called for.’ ‘Stephenson’ was the name. I
remember it now.”
This was good enough as far as it went, but Evans’s next answer
was the one that really mattered.
“Who was the sender?” French asked, with thinly veiled
eagerness.
“ ‘The Veda Office Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Ashburton,
South Devon,’ ” read Evans.
The name seemed dimly familiar to French, but he could not
remember where he had heard it. Evans went on to say that the
crate was invoiced from Ashburton on Tuesday, 16th August, and
had reached Swansea on Saturday, 20th. Carriage had been paid by
the Veda Company and the whole transaction had been conducted
in a perfectly ordinary and regular way.
French left the goods office, and at the nearest telephone call
office rang up the police station in Ashburton. After a considerable
delay he got through. Would the sergeant enquire for him whether
the Veda Company had sent out a crate on the 16th August last,
addressed to the Morriston Road Goods Station, Swansea, to be
called for, and if so, what was in this crate and who had ordered it.
For nearly three hours he hung about the police station before
being recalled to the telephone. The Ashburton sergeant reported
that he had been to the Veda Works and that the manager confirmed
the sending out of the crate. It contained a large duplicator, a
specialty of the firm’s. The machine had been ordered by letter from
the Euston Hotel by a Mr. James S. Stephenson. He enclosed the
money, £62.10.0, stating that they were to send it to the Morriston
Road Goods Station in Swansea, labelled, “To be kept till called for.”
It was to be there not later than on the 20th August, and he would
call for it when the ship by which he intended to despatch it was
ready to sail.
The news did not seem very hopeful to French as over a belated
lunch he discussed it with Howells.
“This opens a second line of enquiry at Ashburton,” he began,
“but I do not think, somehow, that we shall get much from it. I believe
the real scent lies here.”
“Why so? I should have said it depended on what was in the
crate when it reached Swansea. And that’s just what we don’t know.”
“I agree. But to me that sergeant’s report sounds as if things at
Ashburton were O.K. If so, it follows that the body was put in
sometime during that lorry run from Swansea to Loughor. But that
doesn’t rule out enquiries at Ashburton. Even if I am right, something
may be learned from the order for the machine.”
“Quite. Both ends will have to be worked. And how do you
propose to do it?”
“Can’t you guess?” French said, blandly. “Surely there can be but
one answer. I couldn’t hope to do it without the able and
distinguished help of Superintendent Howells.”
The other laughed.
“I thought it was shaping to that. Well, what do you want me to
do?”
“Trace the run, Superintendent. You can do it in a way I couldn’t
attempt. I would suggest that with a map we work out the area which
could have been visited during that night, allowing time for unpacking
the duplicating machine and putting the body in its place. Then I
think this area should be combed. If murder has taken place, you’ll
hear of it.”
“And you?”
“I shall go to Ashburton, learn what I can from the order, and, if it
seems worth while, follow it up to London. Then I’ll come back here
and join forces with you. Of course we shall have to get
Superintendent Griffiths on the job also.”
After some further discussion this program was agreed to.
French, with the superintendent’s help, was to estimate the area to
be covered and to organise the search. To-morrow was Sunday, and
if by Monday evening nothing had come of it he was to leave
Howells to carry on while he paid his visits to Ashburton and if
necessary to London.
The longest unknown period of the lorry’s operations being from
8.30 to 12.30 at night, this was taken as being the ruling factor in the
case. During these four hours the machine had travelled from Neath
to Gorseinon, a distance of about twenty-five miles. About two hours
would be accounted for by the journey and the changing of the
contents of the crate, leaving two or more hours for additional
running—an hour out and an hour back. This meant a radius of
about twenty-five miles. The problem, therefore, was to make an
intensive search of the country within, say, thirty miles of Swansea.
This was a large area and the work involved the coöperation of a
good many men. However, with Superintendent Howells’s help it was
arranged, and by that evening operations were everywhere in
progress.
During the whole of the next two days French remained on the
job, working out possible routes for the lorry and making special
enquiries along them. But no further information was obtained, and
when Monday evening came without result he decided that unless
he heard something next morning he would start for Ashburton.
But next morning news had come in which made a visit there
essential. It appeared that about 9.30 on the evening in question the
lorry had been seen standing in the same lane at Gorseinon in
which, three hours later, the police patrol had found it. A labourer
reported that he had passed it on his way home. As he approached,
the driver was sitting on the step, but, on seeing him, the man had
jumped up and busied himself with the engine. The labourer had
passed on out of sight, but, his way taking him along a path at right
angles to the lane, he had looked back across country and noticed
the driver again seated on the step and lighting a cigarette. The
position of the lorry was the same then as three hours later, and the
conclusion that it had not moved during the whole period seemed
unavoidable.
But if so, it made it much less likely that the body had been put
into the crate during the motor drive. The time available would have
been so short that the area in which the change could have been
made would have been very small indeed. The chances of a
disappearance remaining unknown to the police would, therefore,
have been correspondingly reduced. For the first time French began
to consider seriously the possibility that the body had come from
Devonshire.
While, therefore, Superintendent Howells in no way relaxed his
efforts, French took an early train south. He was in a thoughtful
mood as they pulled out of the station. This, it was evident, was
going to be one of those troublesome cases in which an ingenious
criminal had enveloped his evil deeds in a network of false clues and
irrelevant circumstances to mislead the unfortunate detective officer
to whom an investigation into them might afterward be assigned.
Confound it all! It was not long since he had got rid of that terribly
involved affair at Starvel in Yorkshire, and here was another that
bade fair to be as bad. However, such was life, and worrying
wouldn’t alter it. He was starting on an interesting journey and he
might as well forget his case and make the most of the scenery.
Chapter Five: Messrs. Berlyn and
Pyke
Shortly before six o’clock that evening French stepped out of the
train at the little terminus of Ashburton.
He had enjoyed his run, particularly the latter portion through the
charming South Devonshire scenery, along the coast under the red
cliffs of Dawlish and Teignmouth, and then inland through the well-
wooded hills of Newton Abbot and Totnes. He was pleased, too, with
the appearance of Ashburton, a town T-shaped in plan and
squeezed down into the narrow valleys between three hills. He
admired its old world air and its pleasant situation as he walked up
the street to the Silver Tiger, the hotel to which he had been
recommended.
After a leisurely dinner he went out for a stroll, ending up shortly
after dark at the police station. Sergeant Daw had gone home, but a
constable was despatched for him and presently he turned up.
“I went to the works at once, sir,” he explained in answer to
French’s question. “They’re out at the end of North Street. A big
place for so small a town. They employ a hundred or more men and
a lot of women and girls. A great benefit to the town, sir.”
“And whom did you see?”
“I saw Mr. Fogden, the sales manager. He turned up the
information without delay. The duplicator was ordered from London
and he showed me the letter. You can see it if you go up to-morrow.
There was nothing out of the way about the transaction. They
packed the machine and sent it off, and that was all they could tell
me.”
Suspiciously like a wild-goose chase, thought French as he
chatted pleasantly with the sergeant. Like his confrère at Burry Port,
the man seemed more intelligent and better educated than most
rural policemen. They discussed the weather and the country for
some time and then French said:
“By the way, Sergeant, the name of this Veda Works seemed
vaguely familiar when you telephoned it. Has it been in the papers
lately or can you explain how I should know it?”
“No doubt, sir, you read of the sad accident we had here about
six weeks ago—a tragedy, if I may put it so. Two of the gentlemen
belonging to the works—Mr. Berlyn, the junior partner, and Mr. Pyke,
the travelling representative—lost their lives on the moor. Perhaps
you recall it, sir?”
Of course! The affair now came back to French. So far as he
could recall the circumstances, the two men had been driving across
Dartmoor at night, and while still several miles from home their car
had broken down. They had attempted to reach the house of a friend
by crossing a bit of the moor, but in the dark they had missed their
way, and getting into one of the soft “mires,” had been sucked down
and lost.
“I read of it, yes. Very sad thing. Unusual, too, was it not?”
“Yes, sir, for those who live about here know the danger and they
don’t go near these doubtful places at night. But animals sometimes
get caught. I’ve seen a pony go down myself, and I can tell you, sir, I
don’t wish to see another. It was a slow business, and the worse the
creature struggled the tighter it got held. But when it comes to
human beings it’s a thing you don’t like to think about.”
“That’s a fact, Sergeant. By the way, it’s like a dream to me that I
once met those two gentlemen. I wish you’d describe them.”
“They were not unlike so far as figure and build were concerned;
about five feet nine or five feet ten in height, I should say, though Mr.
Berlyn was slightly the bigger man. But their colouring was different.
Mr. Berlyn had a high colour and blue eyes and reddish hair, while
Mr. Pyke was sallow, with brown eyes and hair.”
“Did Mr. Berlyn wear glasses?” French asked, with difficulty
keeping the eagerness out of his voice.
“No, sir. Neither of them did that.”
“I don’t think they can be the men I met. Well, I’ll go up and see
this Mr. Fogden in the morning. Good night, Sergeant.”
“Good night, sir. If there’s anything I can do I take it you’ll let me
know.”
But French next morning did not go to the office equipment
works. Instead he took an early bus to Torquay, and calling at the
local office of the Western Morning News, asked to see their recent
files. These he looked over, finally buying all the papers which
contained any reference to the tragic deaths of Messrs. Berlyn and
Pyke.
He had no suspicions in the matter except that here was a
disappearance of two persons about the time of the murder, one of
whom answered to the description of the man who had called for the
crate. No one appeared to doubt their death on the moor, but—their
bodies had not been found. French wished to know what was to be
known about the affair before going to the works, simply to be on the
safe side.
He retired to the smoking room of the nearest hotel and began to
read up his papers. At once he discovered a fact which he thought
deeply significant. The tragedy had taken place on the night of
Monday, the 15th August. And it was on the following day, Tuesday,
the 16th, that the crate had been despatched from Ashburton.
The case was exhaustively reported, and after half an hour’s
reading French knew all that the reporters had gleaned. Briefly, the
circumstances were as follow:
Charles Berlyn, as has been said, was junior partner of the firm.
He was a man of about forty and he looked after the commercial side
of the undertaking. Stanley Pyke was an engineer who acted as
technical travelling representative, a younger man, not more than
five and thirty. Each had a high reputation for character and business
efficiency.
It happened that for some time previous to the date in question
the Urban District Council of Tavistock had been in communication
with the Veda Works relative to the purchase of filing cabinets and
other office appliances for their clerk. There had been a hitch in the
negotiations and Mr. Berlyn had arranged to attend the next meeting
of the council in the hope of settling the matter. As some of the
council members were farmers, busy during that season in the
daytime, the meeting was held in the evening. Mr. Berlyn arranged to
motor over, Mr. Pyke accompanying him.
The two men left the works at half past five, their usual hour.
Each dined early and they set out in Mr. Berlyn’s car about seven.
They expected to reach Tavistock at eight, at which hour the meeting
was to begin. After their business was finished they intended to call
on a mill owner just outside Tavistock in connection with a set of
loose-leaf forms he had ordered. The mill owner was a personal
friend of Mr. Berlyn’s and they intended to spend the evening with
him, leaving about eleven and reaching home about midnight.
This program they carried out faithfully, at least in its earlier
stages. They reached Tavistock just as the meeting of the Urban
Council was beginning, and settled the business of the office
appliances. Then they went on to the mill owner’s, arranged about
the loose-leaf forms, and sat chatting over cigars and drinks until
shortly before eleven. At precisely ten-fifty they set off on their return
journey, everything connected with them being perfectly normal and
in order.
They were never seen again.
Mrs. Berlyn went to bed at her ordinary time, but, waking up
shortly before three and finding that Mr. Berlyn had not returned, she
immediately grew anxious. It was so unlike him to fail to carry out his
plans that his absence suggested disaster. She hastily put on some
clothes and went out to the garage, and on finding that the car was
not there she woke the servant and said she was going to the police.
Without waiting for the girl to dress, she went out and knocked up
Sergeant Daw at his little cottage.
Though the sergeant did his best to reassure her, he was by no
means easy in his own mind. The road from Tavistock to Ashburton
is far from safe, especially for night motoring. It is terribly hilly and
winding and at night extraordinarily deserted. An accident might
easily happen and in such lonely country, hours might pass before its
discovery.
The sergeant at once called a colleague and the two men started
off on motor bicycles to investigate. About eight miles out on the
moor they came to Mr. Berlyn’s car standing close up to the side of
the road, as if drawn out of the way of passing traffic. It was heavily
coated with dew and looked as if it had been there for hours. The
engine and radiator were cold and there was no sign of either of its
occupants.
At the side of the road was a patch of gravelly soil mixed with
peat, and across it, leading from the road out over the moor, were
two lines of footsteps. The prints were not sufficiently sharp to give
detailed impressions, but the sergeant had no doubt as to whom
they belonged. He tried to follow them over the moor, but the grass
was too rough to allow of this.
But he soon realised what had happened. Three-quarters of a
mile across the moor, in the direction in which the footsteps pointed,
lived the senior partner of the Veda Company, Colonel Domlio. His
was the only house in the neighbourhood, and it was, therefore,
natural that if from a breakdown of the car or other reason the
travellers had got into difficulties, they should go to him for help. But
the house was not approached from the road on which they were
travelling. The drive started from that which diverged at Two Bridges
and led northwards to Moretonhampstead. To have gone round by
the road would, therefore, have meant a walk of nearly five miles,
whereas fifteen minutes would have taken them across the moor. It
was evident that they had adopted the latter course.
And therein lay their fate. Some quarter of a mile from the road
were a number of those treacherous, vivid green areas of quagmire,
to stumble into which is to run the risk of a horrible death. They were
not quite in the direct line to the house, but in one of the mists which
come up so frequently and unexpectedly it would not have been
difficult for the men to lose their way. The sergeant at once knocked
up Colonel Domlio, only to learn that he had not seen or heard of
either.
When the car was examined, the cause of the stoppage was
discovered. A short circuit had developed in the magneto, which
interfered with the sparking to such an extent that the cylinder
charges could not be ignited.
French was a good deal disappointed by the account. He had
hoped that he was onto the solution of his problem, but now he
doubted it. That Berlyn had murdered Pyke and sent off his body in
the crate had seemed at first sight a promising theory. But French
could see no evidence of foul play in the story. It read merely as a
straightforward narrative of an unfortunate mishap.
At the same time the coincidence of the dates was remarkable
and French felt that he could not dismiss the matter from his mind
until he had satisfied himself that it really was the accident for which
it had been taken.
He wondered if any tests were possible, and gradually four
considerations occurred to him.
First, there was the breakdown of the car. If the breakdown had
been an accident the whole affair was almost certainly an accident,
for he did not think it possible that advantage could have been taken
of an unexpected incident to commit the murder. The details of the
disposal of the crate had been too well worked out to have been
improvised. But if the breakdown had been faked it meant foul play.
Secondly, a valuable check in all such investigations was the
making of a time-table. French felt sure that if murder had been
committed the car must have gone from Tavistock to the works and
back to where it was found. If not, he did not see how the body could
have been taken to the works. Probably, also, it had waited at the
works while the murderer was substituting the body for the
duplicator. Then the radiator must have been hot when the car was
abandoned, and it was cold when Sergeant Daw arrived on the
scene. If French could find out how long all these operations would
have taken he might find that they could not have been carried out in
the time available.
Thirdly, French wondered if in a place of the size of the Veda
Works there was no night watchman, and if there was, how the
contents of the crate could have been changed without his
knowledge.
Lastly, there was the question of the disposal of the duplicator.
Assuming that murder had been done, it was extremely probable
that the murderer had found the duplicator packed in the crate. How
could he have got rid of so heavy and cumbrous an object?
If these four points were investigated French thought he would
obtain sufficient information to settle the main question. It was,
therefore, with a second line of enquiries in his mind that he returned
to Ashburton and walked out to the Veda Works.
These stood a short distance beyond the town at the end of North
Street, and formed a rather imposing collection of buildings, small
but modern and well designed. The principal block was of five
stories, showing narrow pilasters of cream-coloured concrete
separating wide glazed panels. The remaining buildings were single-
storey sheds. The place seemed spotlessly clean and tidy.
French entered a door labelled “Office,” and sending in his
private card, asked for Mr. Fogden. He was shown into a comfortably
furnished room in which a youngish man with a pleasant face sat at
a table desk.
“Good afternoon, Mr. French. Won’t you sit down? What can I do
for you, sir?”
“I should explain first who I am, Mr. Fogden.” French handed over
his official card. “I have called on business which has already been
brought to your notice by the local sergeant. It is about the crate
which was sent by your firm to Mr. James B. Stephenson at the G.
W. Goods Station at Swansea.”
“I saw the sergeant when he called,” Mr. Fogden answered, a
trifle shortly. “That was yesterday, and I gave him all the information
at my disposal.”
“So he told me, sir.” French’s manner was very suave. “My
troubling you on the same business, therefore, requires a little
explanation. I must ask you, however, to consider what I have to tell
you confidential. That crate which you sent to Swansea was duly
called for. It eventually reached Burry Port. There it was opened—by
the police. And do you know what was found in it?”
Mr. Fogden stared at the other with a rapidly growing interest.
“Good Heavens!” he cried. “You surely don’t mean to say that it
contained that body that we have been reading so much about in the
papers recently?”
French nodded.
“That’s it, Mr. Fogden. So you will see now that it’s not idle
curiosity which brings me here. The matter is so serious that I must
go into it personally. I shall have to investigate the entire history of
that crate.”
“By Jove! I should think so. You don’t imagine, I take it, that the
body was in it when it left the works?”
“I don’t, but of course I can’t be sure. I must investigate all the
possibilities.”
“That is reasonable.” Mr. Fogden paused, then continued: “Now
tell me what you want me to do and I will carry out your wishes as
well as I can. I have already explained to the sergeant that the crate
contained a Veda Number Three duplicator, a special product of the
firm’s, and that it was ordered by this Mr. Stephenson in a letter
written from the Euston Hotel. I can turn up the letter for you.”
“Thank you, I should like to see the letter, but as a matter of fact I
should like a good deal more. I am afraid I must follow the whole
transaction right through and interview everyone who dealt with it.”
“I get you. Right. I’ll arrange it. Now first as to the letter.”
He touched the bell and ordered a certain file to be brought him.
From this he took out a letter and passed it to French.
Chapter Six: The Despatch of the
Crate
The letter was written on a single sheet of cream-laid, court-sized
paper and bore the legend “Euston Hotel, London. N. W. 1.” in blue
type on its right corner. It was typed in black, and French could see
that the machine used was not new and that some of the letters were
defective and out of place. It was signed “James S. Stephenson” in a
hand which French instinctively felt was disguised, with blue-black
ink apparently of the fountain-pen type. It read:

12 August.
Messrs. The Veda Office Equipment Manufacturing Co.
Ltd.,
Ashburton,
South Devon.
Dear Sirs,
I should be obliged if you would kindly forward to Mr. James
S. Stephenson, Great Western Railway Goods Station,
Morriston Road, Swansea, marked “To be kept till called for,”
one of your patent Veda electric duplicators, No. 3, to take brief
size. The motor to be wound for 220 volts D.C. and to have a
flexible cord to plug into the main.
Please have the machine delivered at Swansea not later
than 19th inst., as I wish to ship it from there on the following
day.
I enclose herewith money order value £62.10.0, the price,
less discount, as given in your catalogue. Please advise receipt
of money and despatch of duplicator to this hotel.
Yours faithfully,
James S. Stephenson.

You might also like