A Microcomputer Facility for Teaching Digital Control System Design

A low cost microcomputer control facility for the teaching of computer control theory to final year undergraduates is described. The teaching objectives are the need to offer direct "hands-on" experience of operating an on-line digital computer control system and the provision of a versatile method of studying the efficacy of a range of different computer control algorithms, thus allowing theoretical concepts to be more immediately related to a realistic on-line control environment. The recent availability of microcomputers now makes the provision of such a low cost teaching facility a real possibility.