An interdisciplinary control systems laboratory

Applying the theoretically calculated results to a real system helps the student not only visualize, but evaluate how well the model was able to predict the system performance. To this end, a new interdisciplinary controls laboratory has been introduced jointly in the Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Departments of Oklahoma State University. The lab consists of five UNIX workstations which are networked to a number of real-time computer systems and associated lab experiments. The lab can support 10 to 15 students per lab meeting. Experiments already in the lab are the ball on beam, the magnetically levitated sphere, the cart and pole, the 2-link pendulum, the wedge balancer, the inverted “T” and the rotary inverted pendulum. These experiments were chosen because they are inherently unstable and visually appealing. The experiments were designed and constructed by senior students, as part of our capstone design class. These lab experiments made ideal senior design projects, and, in addition, saved the department over the cost of buying the experimental setups commercially