A design project based approach to teaching automatic control theory to mechanical engineers

Student‐configurable, Web‐accessible virtual systems for system dynamics and controls courses

“…They struggle to visualize the motion and dynamic response of physical systems [1]. Students often perceive dynamic systems concepts, especially automatic controls, as a ''large collection of abstract math'' [2]. They get lost in the mathematics and struggle with conceptualizing implementation of fundamentals to predict and control the dynamic response of physical systems [3].…”

Control System Design And Implementation Using The Motor Controls Toolkit – The Robot Car

“…The notion of PWM hinges on the assertion in Figure 7, that when open or closed, an ideal switch dissipates no power. As in Figure 8, in using a rectangular waveform of period T to control the switch, the percent of the time the switch is closed is called the duty cycle as in (2).…”

“…Inverted pendulums have been used in undergraduate controls courses to conduct laboratory experiments that complement the theory discussed in lectures 1 . It has been established in the literature that there is a large chasm between the theory of control systems and their implementation 2 and a body of literature exists to address this issue 3 . The inverted pendulum is often built and used in a fixed location in the laboratory so that students can perform experiments testing their own theoretical designs.…”

Synchronized Robot: A PID Control Project with the LEGO Mindstorm NXT

“…For instructors of control engineering classes that want to emphasize practical application, there are many options for implementing PID control techniques into projects. The simplest way is to create a project where PID control is explored through simulation [1][2][3] . With simulations, learning is somewhat limited because students are usually provided an oversimplified model and only asked to make slight modifications to provided or existing code.…”