Multidisciplinary Lab-Based Undergraduate Controls Curriculum

University Of Colorado At Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs CO

Investigators

Abstract

Engineering - Electrical (55) This project is establishing and reforming a cross-disciplinary, lab-based, undergraduate control curriculum within the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. One of the main focuses of the lab is that it be a multidisciplinary facility. It is shared by the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) students. This is similar in theme to the outstanding control-systems laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Another main focus of this lab is that it include physical devices to control. The ideas are being adapted from a paper by Dennis S. Bernstein, where he describes the control-systems laboratory at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and the necessity of physical experiments, and devices to be controlled. The laboratory is being incorporated into the curricula of four additional junior and senior level control courses. These courses teach classical analog and digital control methods, and modern multi-variable analog and digital control methods. The digital control courses, in particular, are redesigned to be heavily lab-based. Laboratory experiments and demonstrations are designed for the other courses as well. This control systems laboratory is comprised of four work centers. These centers are used to study control of "magnetic Levitation," "Control-Moment Gyroscope" and "Flexible Beam" dynamic mechanism. These devices are configured to study control of liner or non-linear, single-variable or multi-variable, minimum-phase or nonminimum-phase systems. The lab is being used by two control courses which teach classical analog and digital control methods, respectively. Learning is greatly enhanced as the students are now be able to control a physical apparatus (rather than just simulate performance). Unexpected disturbances and unmodeled dynamics are encountered, and so the students are forced to design a controller that will work acceptably in a real implementation. The curricula for these two laboratory courses are redesigned to incorporate extensive weekly experiments and design projects using the equipment purchased for this project.