UAPDIFF machine: upgrade and improvement for functional tests on residual current circuit breakers

The UAPDIFF is a machine located in the smart buildings and electrification laboratories of ABB S.p.A (Vittuone). The purpose of this machine is the automation of tests on the tripping current and tripping times of residual current circuit breakers. These tests are currently carried out by hand by operators, as the machine has limitations and malfunctions, it also has no documentation, no operating instructions, and the manufacturer is now bankrupt. The presented thesis is a continuation of another one, more focused on explaining the functions, the hardware and software structure and the operating state of the machine. This work, instead, involves improving some of the machine's functions, such as generating clearer and more readable reports at the end of the tests, and correcting, as far as possible, the malfunctions of one component of the machine, the linear amplifier (DANA). The previous work had in fact shown how some of the tests were falsified by anomalies generated by the amplifier: unwanted peaks and offsets. The thesis begins with an overview on how residual current circuit breakers work and what standards govern the tests performed by the machine, a description of how the machine is constituted at the hardware and software level, and finally some information on how the tests are currently carried out in the laboratory. It will later continue with a description of the first real task of this thesis, which is to improve the current report generation, and then it will conclude with the work done to eliminate the unwanted peak generated by the amplifier, by using contactors and FPGA.