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Using Information Technology to Enhance Control Engineering Education: Some Experiences

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. Structure of Presentation. 1.   Introduction 2.   Control Engineering at DIT Kevin St.

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Using Information Technology to Enhance Control Engineering Education: Some Experiences

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  1. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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.

  4. 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

  5. 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)

  6. Use of MATLAB/SIMULINK - 1 In lectures, to help quickly develop the diagrams necessary for controller design. 3 commands replaces 4 A4 pages of maths

  7. Use of MATLAB/SIMULINK - 2 In the lectures, to validate the designed controller. Example: Control the liquid level in the following system PIPE VALVE TANK

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

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

  10. Use of MATLAB/SIMULINK - 4 Laboratories • 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.

  11. 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.

  12. Interactive tools - continued Open-loop response No comfort ! Suspension system will be damaged

  13. Interactive tools - continued Solution: Add a feedback controller into the system to improve the performance. Interactive learning tool

  14. Interactive tools - continued Trial 2: Better Trial 1: Not so good !

  15. Interactive tools - continued Trial 3: Better again Trial 4: Little further improvement

  16. System DescriptionVideo SampleOn-line CameraControl Experiment Process Ready Other interesting educational resources - 1 1. Virtual Laboratories e.g. the automatic control telelab Helicopter Simulator Control of a 2 DOF Helicopter.

  17. Other interesting educational resources - 2 1. 2. Newsgroups e.g Process Control 1) Software/Simulation2) Course Syllabi3) Course notes4) Process Systems Research Consortia5) Optimization websites6) Academic Research in Process Systems Engineering7) Process Control TextBooks8) Comment form

  18. 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.

  19. 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.

  20. Conclusions - continued 4. 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.

  21. Conclusions - continued 5. 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.

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