Digital control laboratory courses

A description is given of two Stanford University courses of one-quarter (10 weeks) each, covering the material of digital control of dynamic systems, by the authors. The courses have neither homework nor exams but are based on laboratories using IBM PC computers with locally designed and constructed analog plants. Rather formal reports are also required covering the seven laboratories in the two courses. The first course (4-unit credit) has labs on digital filters, control design by transform methods, control design by state-space methods, and quantization effects, The second course (three units) has labs on identification, Kalman filters, and optimal design. The courses are taught by faculty from the Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Aeronautics and Astronautics Departments and satisfy degree requirements in each of these departments; the students are mainly first-year graduate students with a few undergraduates.<>