Parallel Coordinates and
Application to Analysis and Control
Summary of First Year
Activities
Added parallel coordinate visualization tools to the SCENE
system; this involved development of appropriate modifications to
SCENE's data management system and development of necessary
visualization tools to support the use of parallel coordinate data
representation in the context of power plant models.
Applied the parallel coordinate representation to the
thermodynamic data generated by the
DHR power plant model. This
simulation with its parallel coordinate visualization <link to
our DRH model page> provided a realistic test case for
evaluation of the potential benefits and weaknesses of the
parallel coordinate representation for power plant data.
Developed an alternative power plant model based on the
PSLAM code. This alternative model was
required in order to establish the capability of running a "closed
loop" simulation that allowed interactive user modification of
plant parameters and subsequent recomputation and visualization.
(The DRH model is based on some proprietary code which limited our
access to source codes needed for closed loop simulation
programming.)
Studied the application of parallel coordinates to the
visualization of specific thermodynamic
processes, as opposed to overall plant parameter
visualization. Comparison of "real" versus "ideal" processes
provides a contextual framework that is a more meaningful basis
for interpretation of parallel coordinate based data
representation.
Initiated the port of some SCENE tools to Java. In order to
provide wider access to our research and associated software, a
"cross platform" implementation was required. Java provides such a
cross-platform implementation, and also allows access via Internet
and WWW through Java enabled Web browsers.
Initiated discussions with the
Rutgers
Physical Plant Co-generation; that group has expressed
interest in the parallel coordinate work and a willingness to
provide access to real time plant data.
Initiated work on application of parallel coordinate
visulaization to the power distribution and control problem
("dispatch problem"). For reasons discussed below, this may be a
more appropriate domain of application for parallel coordinates
than power plant data representation.