This project initiates an undergraduate systems and controls laboratory, which will be utilized by the Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical and Bioresource, and Civil Engineering Departments. It is well recognized that classroom exercises or computer simulations alone are not sufficient to develop the critical-thinking and problem-solving skills students need. The intent of this project is to address these issues with the use of a multidisciplinary laboratory, built around a central systems and controls theme and running in conjunction with the appropriate courses in each department. The students learn how to combine knowledge from various parts of the curriculum and apply that knowledge to achieve a desired engineering goal. The laboratory is equipped with experiments in the following areas: core controls experiments, illustrating fundamentals of systems and control theory on typically encountered problems such as mass/spring/damper systems and servomechanisms; electrical emphasis, facilitating more detailed study of electromechanical control problems, including DC and AC machines controlled by thyristors, pulse width modulation, and variable frequency drives; chemical and bioresource emphasis, allowing study of fluid flow and heat transfer, together with autotuning, and adaptive control on a model chemical process rig; and mechanical emphasis, involving the study of hybrid/supervisory control, and how to integrate machines (with appropriate cross-communication) to perform high-level tasks, using a robotics and automated manufacturing workstation. The experiments use control problems commonly encountered in industry and modern real-time control and instrumentation strategies, with each experiment driven from a PC with data acquisition capabilities and virtual instrumentation software. This setup enables students to gain experience on realistic projects and develop practical design skills that are up to date.
