The primary objective of this laboratory improvement program is to teach undergraduates intelligent process control and to integrate a coherent chemical engineering curriculum. A series of two chemical reactors are used to simulate the heart of a typical chemical industry. The control system implemented around the reactors provides the students hands on experience. Laboratory projects are integrated with several experts systems, which include (1) IDSCA: Intelligent Direction Selector of Controller's Action for multiloop control systems; (2) IDSOC: Intelligent Decisionmaker for problem-solving Strategy of Optimal Control; (3) ESID: Expert for System Identification experiment Design; and (4) the integrated intelligent system for real-time process control. The intelligent educational system, which is based on production systems with a backward chaining inference engine, can help students gain a clear insight into the above subjects. Microcomputers make such a low cost and effective teaching facility a real possibility.
