Design and Implementation of Education and Training Graphical User Interface (GUI) Based on NI LabVIEW for the FESTO MPS PA Compact Workstation

Abstract

This paper aims to tackle the limitation of having predefined controllers, On-Off, Proportional (P), Proportional Integral (PI), Integral (I), Proportional Integral Derivative (PID), to control the FESTO MPS PA compact workstation using the Fluid Lab software. The current software allows users to change the parameters of the selected control structure; however, it is not possible to change the controller structure and/or to implement different control strategies. In this paper, several LabVIEW Virtual Instruments (VIs) are created to manipulate actuators and obtain information from the sensors of the MPS PA compact workstation. The proposed software interface will be used for training students at Abu Dhabi Polytechnic on topics related to process control design and implementation. To demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed LabVIEW software interface, different control strategies including fuzzy PID are implemented for the four control loops that are supported by the MPS workstation. Experimental results for the level and flow rate control loops using PID and fuzzy controllers are provided as examples.