Automatic Control Laboratory: New Approach to Classical Problems

The list of basic problems which have to be addressed in teaching fundamentals of automatic control has remained largely unchanged for the last several decades. Students beginning their education in automatic control are still taught how to determine system stability, or how to achieve satisfactory steady-state and transient performance at the same time. The strategy applied in developing a new Automatic Control Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Pennsylvania State University was to present the same classical problems using modern, attractive digital hardware and software. Each experimental set-up in the laboratory is equipped with an individual AT&T 6300 personal computer and printer. The computer system is used for data acquisition, monitoring, and control of the experiments and is thus replacing many devices such as oscilloscopes, function generators, strip chart and x-y recorders, traditionally used in student laboratories. As a result, the use of personal computers with A/D and D/A interface not only brings the elements of attractive technique to the laboratory but it is also cost efficient. The processes studied in a one-credit undergraduate course, Automatic Controls Laboratory, include position and velocity control with d.c. motors, pneumatic servomechanism, and electric air heater. A mixture of commercial and in-house software is available for data acquisition, system analysis and design. Due to the considerable flexibility of the digital equipment, the laboratory is also used in a variety of individual independent study projects as well as in a graduate course on digital process control.