Virtual assistant for individualized practical training on controller design

Abstract: In this work we present a virtual assistant to help instructors offer individualized practical training on controller design for linear systems. The virtual assistant is designed to be used together with Goodle GMS, a web application which offers services for the collection, storage and automatic grading of students exercises. Using the proposed scheme, an instructor can generate in an easy way and without having knowledge of programming, individualized exercises that can be graded automatically, ensuring that all the exercises have a solution and the same degree of difficulty. The platform has been teste

Development of Microcontroller-Based Ball and Beam Trainer Kit

A ball and beam trainer kit based on microcontroller was developed for teaching control system course for the sophomore students. This specially-purposed kit consists of a ball located on a beam with a fixed axle at one of its end. At the other end, a servomotor was employed to control the position of the ball by adjusting the rotation angle of the servomotor. Seven predetermined positions were set to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 cm relative to the fixed axle of the beam. The Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) scheme was then used to compensate the error. This kit is equipped with a user interface to configure controller coefficients, select the set points, plot the actual ball position, and display parameter values. The user interface program runs on PC or notebook connected to microcontroller via serial communications. A questionnaire-based assessment about the use of this kit was conducted by 17 students taking the course, giving a rating value of 94.12%

Remote laboratory to support control theory

The Control Systems plays a vital role in the industry, which is the most essential application of the Electrical Engineering. The control concepts are present in most of the automation systems. The Control Systems theory is the key concept to achieve the automation and makes world faster. But, in reality the study of control engineering is decreased in the recent years, because of the difficulty in learning the concepts of the control theory. Most of the students feel difficult to understand theoretical concepts of control systems. The traditional teaching methodology is one way of teaching control systems concepts. Even though books are proper way of teaching control systems in a systematic way, we need additional tool to create interaction between the subject and the students. The teaching platform is worth to analyse the possibility to add or complement the way of standing with means able to add Real evidences. In another way, it is important that the provided lab experiment should be affordable. The teaching platform to support control theory has been introduced with set of experiments to create Real evidences, and manuals to carry out those experiments, slides to have a guidance and Graphical User Interface (GUI) to have an interaction with the control system is provided