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This article reviews the possibilities of using visitor monitoring in the management of a protected area in the example of the Moravian Karst Protected Landscape Area (pla). The Moravian Karst is the largest and most significant karst area in the Czech Republic. Its location near a large city and its easy accessibility mean that some of the pla’s parts are faced with the negative impacts of overly intensive tourism on rare natural sites and protected species. While the presence of visitors in a protected area is desirable, it is necessary to regulate their activities in the area. The pla management needs quality information for its decision making, such as on the current characteristics and behaviour of visitors. To obtain this information, primary marketing research was carried out at selected pla sites from May to September 2018. A questionnaire survey was used to obtain data from 2,100 visitors and to define the Moravian Karst visitor profile. We found that most visitors were attracted to caves open to the public and the Macocha gorge and that almost a quarter of respondents were planning to return to the pla within six months of questioning. A major challenge for the sustainable development of tourism in the area will be the fact that visitors to the caves are not interested in visiting other localities in the pla. The data obtained about visitors will be used by the pla management to formulate measures to redirect visitors from the most-visited locations to the less-visited ones. Keywords: sustainable tourism, marketing research, visitor profile, destination management, protected landscape area, Moravian Karst

Inland fisheries are important sources of ecosystem services contributing to human diet, health, well-being and economies. The evaluation of the importance and value of inland fisheries is one of the biggest challenges for its development. To develop the inland fisheries data collection, we reviewed the current status of data collection in European countries and provided five detailed country examples. The level and methods of inland fisheries data collection in Europe were highly variable. Some countries did not collect any data on recreational fishing, or it was collected only from specific areas, or only the number of licenses sold was recorded. Data collection from catches of diadromous species was most common and harmonized among countries and in particular, Atlantic salmon Salmo salar were recorded. When data from other fish species were also nationally collected, the methods used included postal or telephone recall surveys using a sample of citizens of the country. More detailed surveys were used to assist national surveys, or were used independently, in specific sites of importance using various methods, like postal surveys targeted to fishing license holders, online reporting of catches, or catch reports and logbooks. Many countries provided fishing license buyers with catch return forms or logbooks to be filled at fishing occasions and/or returned in the end of the fishing season. Commercial inland fisheries did not exist, or were very limited, in many European countries. In countries where commercial fishing was important, in most cases the fishers were registered and obliged to report their catches. The reliability of self-reporting of commercial catches was questioned in some cases. There was a trend towards webbased online reporting of inland fisheries data, which some countries were already using. The specific country examples give detailed description of data collection, focusing on: 1) country-wide postal survey (Finland) and 2) web-based survey and development of citizen science approach (Denmark). Example 3) from Ireland focuses on recreational salmonid fishing and conservation limits. There are two examples based on logbook returns: 4) one strict system, which is considered to work well (Czech Republic) and 5) one less controlled system, currently not producing reliable results, and under development (Croatia). Case studies were provided in each country example. Finally, the authors discuss the important aspects of inland fisheries data collection and review the methods to provide recommendations.

The paper deals with the design and implementation of a system for monitoring the level of liquid in a remote reservoir without power supply from electric network. The hardware of the solution is based on Arduino Mega platform with GSM / GPRS sending data and level measurement using hydrostatic pressure gauge. An internet server is used to collect data in a database and to present data to users in a form of web pages. The work focuses on high precision, low power consumption and low cost of the final system. The paper describes the developed hardware and software. The paper also present testing of the system in real conditions.

In the paper model of cogeneration plant with heat storage was developed for investigating the potential of implementing the heat storage. The model is used within the operation optimization to maximize the revenue from power sales. Receding horizon of 7 days is used for operational planning resulting in linear optimization problem. The method is used to evaluate the benefit of different sized storages using the real-life heat demand data for Malenovice district in Czech Republic and day-ahead electricity prices for a one-year horizon. The results show that the revenue from power sales can be significantly improved by shifting operation to the most commercially feasible points in time.

Robotic systems are used wherever human limits are achieved. The inspection robots are used for securing the access to the manholes, pipes and sewage systems, for monitoring faults and for the eventual minor repairs. The paper presents the design, construction and assembly of a four-wheeled inspection robotic rover used in sewage pipes with diameters larger than 200 mm. We managed to design the robust, waterproof and dirt-resistant washable rover solution, which has been proved to be very functional and easy to produce. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2017.

The images of the divine Sun in ancient cultures are the context of Old Testament expressions concerning the sun. The translator of the Hebrew text into Greek must have also been influenced by the culture that surrounded him. The translator provided his Greek-speaking Jewish contemporaries with a monotheist tuned paraphrase of the Hebrew text in Psalm 18:5c. His idea of the sun as an appropriate allegorical representation of God is based on linguistic and thematic default assumptions of the Hebrew text.

The paper is aimed at a comparative simulation study on three prospective ideas how to approximate a general exponential polynomial by another one having all its exponents in the exp-function as integer multiples of some real number. This work is motivated by spectral properties of neutral time-delay systems (NTDS) and the contemporary state of the knowledge about the spectrum of NTDS with commensurate delays which are characterized by the latter family of exponential polynomials. The three ideas are, namely, those: Taylor series expansion, the interpolation in points given by dominant roots estimates and the special extrapolation technique presented by the authors recently. The goal is to match dominant parts of both the spectra as close as possible. However, some properties from the so called strong stability point of view can not be, in principle, preserved. The presented simulation example demonstrates the accuracy and efficiency of all the methods., Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic within the National Sustainability Programme [L01303, MSMT-7778/2014]; European Regional Development Fund [CZ.1.05/2.1.00/03.0089]

The paper deals with modeling and adaptive control of the Twin Rotor MIMO System - a real-time laboratory plant by Feedback Ltd. The plant consists of two propellers, which can be controlled by external controller, and resembles a helicopter. An initial mathematical model is derived using first principles modeling and further improved to correspond more with behavior of the real-time plant. The mathematical model is transferred to Simulink environment and is used for design of an adaptive controller. Several self-tuning controller were tested and closed loop behavior of the nonlinear Simulink model and of the real-time plant is compared.

The paper deals with modelling of a Twin Rotor MIMO System-a laboratory model constructed by Feedback Instruments Ltd. The system consists of a two rotors which resembles a simple helicopter. The non-stationary part of the model can rotate around two perpendicular axes to produce azimuth and elevation output of the system. These outputs are affected by speed of the rotors. Significant cross-coupling can be observed and the system behaviour is nonlinear. A model based on first-principle modelling was derived and is parameters were refined by identification based on real-time experiments. Resulting model was designed in MATLAB/Simulink environment and can serve for control design. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.

This paper presents new control laboratory course designed at the Faculty of Applied Informatics for the undergraduate courses in Automatic control. Experience obtained during the building process of Control Laboratory and the organization of student assignments for laboratory course is described. The objectives of the laboratory course are to integrate the fundamental skills from theoretical courses to solve engineering problems in dynamics and control and to encourage the problem-based learning.

This contribution presents a usage of Self-Tuning Controllers Simulink Library (STCSL) for control of the nonlinear systems using decentralized approach. The STCSL was created for design, simulation verification and especially real-time implementation of single-input/single-output (SISO) digital self-tuning controllers (STC). The proposed self-tuning controllers what are included in the library can be divided into three groups. The first group covers self-tuning PID controllers, the second group of described controllers is based on the polynomial approach and the third group contains the controllers derived on the other approaches (minimum variance control etc.). This paper is focused on decentralized control of multi-input/multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear systems in real time applications. The aim is to investigate simple discrete STC with respect to their usage in real-time decentralized control. A supervisory logic block is used in the control scheme to increase the stability of the recursive identification process by ensuring that just one of the controllers is in adaptive mode at a particular time. The logical supervisor is purposed as a simple and reliable technique for designing the supervisory system. The basic idea of the logical supervisor is based on assigning priorities to individual outputs of controlled multivariable system and on-line evaluation of criterions for each subsystem. The usage of this approach has been tested in real-time conditions for control of two-input/two-output (TITO) laboratory models. The STCLS is available free of charge at Internet site -http://www.utb.cz/stctool/.

The contribution presents a MATLAB-Toolbox for design, simulation and verification of single input single output (SISO) discrete self-tuning controllers. The proposed adaptive controllers who are included into a Toolbox can be divided into two parts. The first part covers PID adaptive algorithms using traditional Ziegler-Nichols method for the setting of the controller parameters, the second part of described controllers is based on the pole placement design. The MATLAB-Toolbox is very successfully used in Adaptive Control Course in education practice for design, simulation and verification of self - tuning control systems in real - time conditions. It is suitable for design and verification of the industrial controllers, too.

This paper deals with state observers with respect to their usage in the model predictive control (MPC) based on state space model of the controlled system. In case of immeasurable states a state observer (filter) is used to calculate current states in each control step. The paper is especially focused to finite impulse filters (FIR) as these filters do not require knowledge of initial state - contrary to infinite impulse response (IIR) filters. Several linear filters are tested and compared with proposed filters based on quadratic and linear programming. Different filter lengths (horizons) were tested to investigate filters’ performance. Filters were tested in very noisy conditions to evaluate filter robustness and therefore its usability in real-time deployment. The simulations were carried out using data from a real-time laboratory (Amira DR300 Servo system). All the measurements and simulations were carried out in MATLAB/Simulink environment.

Modern electric power systems are large-scale systems with a complex structure comprised of interconnected networks. The balance between the generation and consumption of electricity has to be maintained at any moment. Transmission System Operator (TSO) uses ancillary services for keeping the domestic power balance. Selection of the services can be viewed as an optimization problem. In this contribution the optimization problem is solved via the Self-Organizing Migration Algorithm which belongs to the class of evolutionary algorithms., 1M0567, Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic

Heat exchange belongs to the class of basic thermal processes which occur in a range of industrial technologies, particularly in the energetic and chemical industry. The process of heat exchange is often implemented by through-flow heat exchangers. It is apparent that for an exact theoretical description of dynamics of heat exchange processes it is necessary to use partial differential equations. Heat exchange is namely a process with distributed parameters. It is also necessary to take into account its nonlinear and stochastic character. In spite of these facts, most of thermal equipment is controlled by digital modifications of PID controllers at present. This paper deals with identification of a static behaviour of a through-flow heat exchanger and a design of an adaptive predictive controller for its control. The proposed adaptive predictive controller was verified by a real-time control of Multifunction Process Control Teaching System (MPCTS) - the Armfield PCT 40.

The paper presents application of evolutionary algorithm for cost-optimal dispatch of ancillary services in power Czech transmission system. The problem is formulated as a nonlinear optimization problem taking into account both continuous and discrete control variables. The optimal setting of control variables such as schedule for activation of regulation reserves, which minimizes the regulation energy costs while maintaining required control performance are determined via evolution algorithm. The proposed control scheme is tested on historical data from the transmission system operator.

The majority of processes met in the industrial practice have stochastic characteristics and eventually they embody nonlinear behaviour. Traditional controllers with fixed parameters are often unsuitable for such processes because their parameters change. The changes of process parameters are caused by changes in the manufacturing process, in the nature of the input materials, fuel, machinery use (wear) etc. Fixed controllers cannot deal with this. One possible alternative for improving the quality of control for such processes is the use of adaptive control systems. Different approaches were proposed and utilized. One successful approach is represented by self-tuning controller (STC). This approach is also called system with indirect adaptation (with direct identification). The main idea of an STC is based on the combination of a recursive identification procedure and a selected controller synthesis. In this paper, the standard STC (non-predictive) approach is verified and compared with STC based on the Model Predictive Control (MPC). The verification of both methods was implemented by the real-time control of a highly nonlinear laboratory model, the DR300 Speed Control with Variable Load.

The paper is focused on usage of direct search methods of an optimum in the area of predictive control. The aim of the process is to find an optimal coverage of a given predicted course of output variable by means of a set of sources. Proposed approach can be used in multi source tasks where overall output is given as the sum of outputs of individual sources. Each source is described by its characteristic behaviour and its individual set of constraints. The general approach is applied to the problem of predictive control of ancillary services in the European power energy system. Simulation examples are applied to the situation of the transmission system in the Czech Republic.

The paper deals with the control of multivariable systems with the same number of inputs as the number of outputs using a decentralized approach. The controlled system is divided into single input-single output (SISO) subsystems and adaptive controllers are used to control each subsystem. This paper is focused to the usage of self-tuning controllers (STC) which are a subset of adaptive controllers characterized by on-line identification of controlled system. The control part of individual controllers are based on polynomial approach (dead-beat in the weak and strong version, pole assignment in the 1DOF and 2DOF configurations, controllers based on minimization of quadratic criterion). A supervisory logic block is used in the control scheme to increase the stability of the on-line identification process by ensuring that just one of the controllers is in adaptive mode at a particular time. The logic supervisor is purposed as a simple and reliable technique for designing the supervisory logic. The basic idea of the logic supervisor is based on assigning priorities to individual outputs of controlled multivariable system and on-line evaluation of criterions for each subsystem. The usage of this approach has been tested in simulation experiments and in real-time applications and some results are presented in the paper

One o. The most widespread modern control strategies i. The discrete-time Model Predictive Control (MPC) method which require. The solution o. The quadratic programming problem. For systems with binary input variable. The quadratic problem is replaced by more challenging Mixed-Integer Quadratic Programming (MIQP) problem. The objective of this work i. The implementation of MIQP problem solver in a low power embedded computing platform with limited computational power and limited memory. The MIQP problem is solved using branch-and-bound method an. The solution o. The relaxed original quadratic problems with equality and inequality constraints solved i. The nodes of a binary tree is found with interior-point algorithm. A simulation study o. The reserve constrained economic dispatch problem for power generators with prohibited zones is presented. Simulation results sho. The applicability o. The proposed solver for small size MIQP problems. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article unde. The CC BY-NC-ND license.

The paper deals with the usage of a BORIS control and simulation environment for the identification and control of a real-time laboratory model. Identification and control experiments were performed using Gas Flow Control model by Leybold. This model is a part of a Real-time Models Laboratory at Tomas Bata University in Zlin. The aim of this paper is to introduce an experiment performed using the BORIS environment and explore usability of this environment for the real-time control. Interoperability and comparison with the well-known MATLAB/Simulink environment is also discussed.

This paper presents real – time control of the Twin Rotor MIMO System laboratory model. The objective laboratory model is a multivariable nonlinear unstable system of high order. It is not possible to stabilize the system and satisfactorily track reference signals using classical controllers with fixedly set parameters. Two methods based on self – tuning control utilizing adaptive approach are discussed. Both designed methods are based on polynomial approach. In first case an algorithm taking into account internal interactions among input and output variables was used. The second method utilizes the principle of decentralized control with an additional logical supervisor for switching of the recursive identification in particular loops. In both cases stability of closed loop system was ensured and after an adaptation phase the asymptotic tracking of reference signals was achieved. Quality of control achieved by particular methods is compared and discussed.