Human-Machine Systems concepts applied to Control Engineering Education

Abstract

In this paper, we interest us to Human-Machine Systems (HMS) concepts applied to Education. It is shown how the HMS framework enables to propose original solution in matter of education in the field of control engineering. We focus on practical courses on control of manufacturing systems. The proposed solution is based on an original use of real and large-scale systems instead of simulation. The main idea is to enable the student, whatever his/her level to control the whole system, from novice to expert, in a safety mode. The teacher is responsible for sharing the control design tasks between the student and the automatic system. Different teachers and students have tested this approach, on different manufacturing systems. By an experiment with a class of “10-year-old novice control engineer”, we have shown the interest and the power of the proposed solution. We have proposed at the children to realize their first control program of a packaging process. This experiment encountered a big success.