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Using Information Technology to Enhance Control Engineering Education: Some Experiences

Aidan O’Dwyer

School of Control Systems and Electrical Engineering, Kevin St.

aidan.odwyer@dit.ie

5 May 2005

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Structure of Presentation 

1.   Introduction

2.   Control Engineering at DIT Kevin St.

3.  How MATLAB/SIMULINK is used in lectures and labs

4. Interactive tools based on MATLAB/SIMULINK

5.   Other Interesting Educational Resources

6. Conclusions

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Introduction Engineering is concerned with understanding and directing the materials and forces of nature for the use and convenience of humankind.

Control engineering is concerned with the understanding and control of        machines        processes and        industrial automation systems to provide useful economic products for society.

Control engineering is based on foundations of feedback theory and linear systems analysis. It is not limited to any engineering discipline but is equally applicable to aeronautical, chemical, mechanical, environmental, civil and electrical engineering.

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Control Engineering at Kevin St.

• B.E. in Electrical/Electronic Engineering – Years 3 and 4 

• M.E. in Advanced Engineering (1 year, taught masters course).

• B.E. in Electrical Engineering (part time): Final Year

• B.Tech. in Control and Automation Systems: Year 3

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Duties of an Educator

To provide students of the discipline with

  a strong theoretical base - classroom

  good practical ability - laboratory

  skills for life-long self-learning

- computer aided design and analysis tools

(MATLAB/SIMULINK)

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Use of MATLAB/SIMULINK - 1In lectures, to help quickly develop the diagrams necessary for controller design.

3 commands replaces 4 A4 pages of maths

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Use of MATLAB/SIMULINK - 2

In the lectures, to validate the designed controller.

Example: Control the liquid level in the following system

VALVE

PIPE

TANK

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Assessment 1: Servo response. Assessment 2: Frequency response.

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Use of MATLAB/SIMULINK - 3In the lectures, to allow the assessment of an entire class of controller design techniques:

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Use of MATLAB/SIMULINK - 4Laboratories• Two two-hour laboratory sessions are used to give the

students hands-on experience

• Subsequently, most laboratories would be based on computer based data acquisition.

  

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Interactive tools based on MATLAB/SIMULINK Interactive tools are a great stimulus for developing

engineering intuition.

Example: Controller design for a Bus Suspension System   

When the bus runs onto a 10 cm high step, the bus body will        oscillate within a range of +/- 5 mm and        return to a smooth ride within 5 seconds.

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Interactive tools - continued

Open-loop response

  

No comfort !

Suspension system will be damaged

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Interactive tools - continued

Solution: Add a feedback controller into the system to improve the performance.

Interactive

learning tool

  

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Interactive tools - continued

Trial 1: Not so good ! Trial 2: Better

 

 

  

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Interactive tools - continued 

 

Trial 3: Better again Trial 4: Little further improvement 

 

  

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Other interesting educational resources - 1

1. Virtual Laboratories e.g. the automatic control telelab

Helicopter SimulatorControl of a 2 DOF Helicopter.

System Description

Video Sample

On-line Camera

Control Experiment

Process Ready

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Other interesting educational resources - 2

2. Newsgroups e.g1.         

Process Control 1) Software/Simulation 2) Course Syllabi3) Course notes4) Process Systems Research Consortia5) Optimization websites6) Academic Research in Process Systems Engineering7) Process Control TextBooks8) Comment form

 

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Conclusions

1. The twin pressures of

     the need for students to learn a wider variety of concepts, ideally in a self-learning mode, and

     the reduction in class contact time

has led to the use of increased levels of information technology in control engineering education.

2. At Kevin St., work has concentrated on the use of the MATLAB/SIMULINK computer aided design package to enhance student learning.

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Conclusions - continued 3. In summary:

• Both traditional analytical design techniques, and computer aided design techniques, are covered in the lecture environment.

•The MATLAB/SIMULINK programmes are simultaneously placed on the student network so that students can access and interact with the simulations outside of the classroom; hundreds of such programmes, developed over five years, are available.

•The simulations are also used in the laboratory environment to allow the students to rapidly design and test controllers, prior to implementing the controllers on real processes.

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Conclusions - continued4. Student feedback: •Students have responded very well to the interactive learning tool (particularly the animations).

•Students have also responded well to the presentation of analytical material side by side with a corresponding simulation on the computer in the lecture environment.

•MATLAB/SIMULINK has facilitated a shift in approach from considerable routine calculation to an approach which emphasises design. This shift has been welcomed.

•However, only the more motivated students are interested in taking the simulation programmes and experimenting themselves with different designs.

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Conclusions - continued5. Future enhancements will include:

• Further development and use of interactive learning tools and associated animations.

• Allowing student access to the MATLAB/SIMULINK programmes via a dedicated Intranet.

• A greater emphasis on problem based learning and mini-project work using the tool.

• Expansion of assessments that formally test student proficiency in simulation work, analysis work and implementation work using the tool.