Control Engineering Education Research Articles

Control-Lab-in-a-Box: Bridging the Gap between Control Theory and Engineering Practice

Traditional control engineering teaching methods heavily rely on abstract mathematical concepts, often leaving students puzzled about real-world applications. Common simulation tools, such as MATLAB and Simulink provide a good visual demonstration but don't necessarily bridge the gap between theory and application. The proposed ‘lab-in-a-box’ approach offers a tangible method for students to connect control theory with a practical control engineering experience. The literature has observed a shift towards such portable labs, given the advancements in compact computing devices such as Raspberry Pi and Arduino boards in electronics and control teaching. The primary goal of these labs is to deliver an authentic engineering experience with essential hardware. Evaluation of this method, through the student module evaluation questionnaire (MEQ), revealed a significant increase in student satisfaction after its introduction. While the results are promising, challenges remain, such as the initial set-up of the kits. However, the ‘lab-in-a-box’ is found to be a valuable tool in control engineering education, bridging the gap between theoretical and practical understanding. An on-going development includes updating of the kits to match future engineering challenges and needs, e.g., electrification and autonomy of vehicles.

Online Virtual Reality Networked Control Laboratory Applied in Control Engineering Education.

Online laboratories play an important role in engineering education. This work discusses a WebVR-based virtual laboratory system. The user enters the simulated laboratory environment through a virtual reality (VR) device and interacts with the experimental equipment, similar to hands-on experiments in a physical laboratory. In addition, the proposed system allows users to design their own control algorithms and observe the effects of different control parameters to enhance their understanding of the experiment. To illustrate the features of the proposed virtual laboratory, an example is provided in this paper, which is an experiment on a double inverted pendulum system. The experimental results show that the proposed system allows users to conduct experiments in an immersive and interactive manner and provides users with a complete experimental process from principal design to experimental operation. A solution is also provided to change any virtual laboratory into a WebVR-based virtual laboratory for education and training.

Evaluation of GPTs for Control Engineering Education: Towards Artificial General Intelligence

Recently introduced Generalized Pre-trained Transformers (GPT) and conversional chatbots such as ChatGPT are causing deep society transformations. The incorporation of these Artificial Intelligence technologies can be beneficial in multiple science and development areas including Control Engineering. The evaluation of GPTs within Control Engineering Education and PID control is addressed in this work. Different types of interactions with GPTs are evaluated and the use of a personalized GPT for PID tuning explored.

The Influence Of Using Media Trainer Instrumentation For Monitoring System Alarms On The Learning Outcomes Maritime Electrical Cadets

Control and instrumentation engineering education plays a crucial role in preparing DIII Maritime Electrical to face the complexity of control systems in the maritime industry. In an effort to improve the quality of learning, the use of educational technologies such as media trainer instrumentation alarm monitoring systems has become the focus of research. The study aims to investigate the impact of the use of media trainer instrumentation alarm system monitoring on the learning results of the control system of the cadets. Merchant Marine Polytechnic Of Surabaya, as the leading maritime higher education institution in Indonesia, has led in integrating this technology into the learning process. By leveraging the media trainer instrumentation alarm monitoring system, they hope the cadets can gain a deep understanding of the key concepts in system control and monitoring. This research uses a quantitative data analysis approach. The control group followed conventional teaching methods, while the experimental group engaged in learning using this technology. Learning data from both groups, including test scores, tasks, and performance evaluations, were collected and analyzed. The results of this research provide valuable insights for maritime higher education institutions and practitioners in this industry. The use of trainer learning media has a significant impact on the learning outcomes of the experimental class, which reaches a higher level compared to the control class that does not use the trainer (protoboard) learning media in the Control System courses at the ETO Faculty in Merchant Marine Polytechnic Of Surabaya

Lab-Tec@Home: Technological Innovation in Control Engineering Education with Impact on Complex Thinking Competency

The objective of this paper is to present the results of the implementation process of the Lab-Tec@Home kit, an educational innovation that allows students to set up home laboratories to test and validate basic control engineering concepts. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to measure the acquisition and development of students’ perceived achievement of complex thinking competency during this educational practice, considering how valuable it is to improve their perception of additional skills while fulfilling the objectives of the innovation. We implemented a validated instrument to measure this competency before and after using the Lab-Tec@Home kit and in a control group where this educational innovation practice was not carried out. Although the results did not show a statistically significant difference in the level of perception or the improvement achieved between the groups, they indicated an impact on the homogeneity of the students’ perceived skills, which is a value of this educational tool and its greatest finding and contribution.

AutomationShield: An Open-Source Hardware and Software Initiative for Control Engineering Education

This paper presents the AutomationShield open-source initiative and framework, which offers small and affordable devices suitable for take-home experiments in the education of future control engineers. Every device embodies a dynamic feedback system based on different physical phenomena. These devices, so-called shields, are meant to be installed on Arduino or similar development boards with the Arduino R3 compatible mechanical and electronic layout. An application programming interface and instructional examples in C/C++, MATLAB, and Simulink come with the devices. This interface serves hardware functions, so that the user may focus on creating embedded applications for automatic control. Hardware design and program codes are published under the open-source paradigm, and thus may be reproduced and built upon by anyone. In the paper we also focus on integration of the shields into the educational process and describe the experience and feedback gained so far.

AeroShield: An Open-Source Propeller-Driven Pendulum Device for Control Engineering Education*

This paper introduces an open-source reference design of a miniature propeller-driven pendulum device for control engineering education. The presented design of the aeropendulum is built as a swappable and compact extension “shield” for Arduino embedded microcontroller development boards, utilizing off-the-shelf electronic components and 3D-printed mechanical parts. This fact, along with the full hardware documentation provided online, makes the low-cost replication of such hardware simple and available for public. The open-source software includes an application programming interface for Arduino IDE, MATLAB, and Simulink. In addition, typical classroom examples to demonstrate the use and the limitations of the discussed device are presented as well.

Digital Twin Based Laboratory for Control Engineering Education

The Covid-19 pandemic has made online learning the main choice in learning modes. For control engineering education that requires substantial laboratory practices as part of the learning process, online learning is a challenge in itself. It is difficult for students to gain experience and understanding of physical phenomena through online learning. Two approaches are commonly used to provide learning experiences that resembles practices in a traditional laboratory, namely virtual laboratory and remote laboratory. The drawback of virtual laboratory is that simulation eliminate the interaction aspect with physical devices make students miss the mental experiences of dealing with physical objects that important for engineering students, while the remote laboratory requires high cost and less flexible. This paper proposes another approach to overcome the shortcomings by utilizing a technology known as Digital Twin. Digital Twin based laboratory provides digital or virtual twin of a physical system that are interconnected with one another via the internet. The interconnection of the physical system and its virtual twin preserve the physical interaction and also increase the flexibility of the laboratory. Preliminary implementation and experiments show that the propose approach works properly. Users are able to manipulate the real plant remotely, and to observe almost identical dynamics of the real plant and the 3D visualization of the virtual plant.

A REVIEW STUDY ON INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL ENGINEERING

In the present review, instrumentation and control engineering (ICE) is defined as a branch of engineering that studies the measurement and control of process variables, and the design and implementation of systems that incorporate them. Instrumentation and control engineering (ICE) combines two branches of engineering. Instrumentation engineering is the science of the measurement and control of process variables within a production or manufacturing area. Meanwhile, control engineering, also called control systems engineering, is the engineering discipline that applies control theory to design systems with desired behaviors. Control engineers are responsible for the research, design, and development of control devices and systems, typically in manufacturing facilities and process plants. Control methods employ sensors to measure the output variable of the device and provide feedback to the controller so that it can make corrections toward desired performance. Automatic control manages a device without the need of human inputs for correction, such as cruise control for regulating a car's speed. In the present study a comprehensive review study on instrumentation and control engineering have been presented. The study was considered from different viewpoints which includes general introduction to instrumentation and control engineering; a comprehensive instrumentation that deliberates the present subject from the consideration of introduction, historical background and development, applications, measurement parameters, instrumentation engineering, impact of modern development; control engineering from the consideration of introduction, overview, history, control theory, control systems, control engineering education, control engineering careers, and recent advancement; and the last section is the conclusions.

Teaching automation with Factory I/O under a competency-based curriculum

Some of the most critical competencies students need to acquire to become control engineers require performing practices under actual industrial conditions. This means that they must not only master the theoretical aspects of the discipline but also acquire skills and attitudes to face unpredictable real-world situations. Software tools such as Matlab/Simulink are widely used to train the design and validation of controllers, but they fail to provide real industrial contexts. Nowadays, there are 3D simulation tools that support recreating industrial environments to a remarkable extent, making them very attractive for university courses. Nevertheless, their application in engineering courses is scarce yet. This paper presents a methodological framework for seizing into competency-based courses one of these simulation tools, called Factory I/O. Our approach was evaluated in a master’s course on Industrial PID Control at Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso (PUCV) in Chile. The evaluation comprised the qualitative analysis of students’ grades over four consecutive course editions and the qualitative study of students’ opinion on Factory I/O educational value. The objectives of our evaluation were (i) testing if Factory I/O helped students develop skills hard to practice in academic contexts, such as detecting faults or recognizing the importance of having well-defined operation protocols; (ii) validating our methodology for competency-based courses; and (iii) surveying our students about Matlab/Simulink and Factory I/O strengths/weaknesses to teach control engineering. According to the results, (a) Factory I/O complements Simulink by providing an adequate virtual environment to learn the aforementioned skills; and (b) our methodology supports courses’ continuous improvement through the statistical analysis of students’ achievements at different abstraction levels.

Lab-Tec@Home: A Cost-Effective Kit for Online Control Engineering Education

It is widely recognized that a hands-on laboratory experience is useful in control engineering education. Herein, the students overcome the main gaps between theoretical knowledge and experimental setups. Nowadays, in times of crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual and remote laboratories are emerging as primary educational resources. However, in virtual labs, the students are not exposed to real life issues (i.e., equipment problems, noise, etc.) while in remote labs, communication and connectivity problems arise (i.e., network security, synchronization management, internet speed, etc.). Henceforth, this work presents an unpublished educational project named Lab-Tec@Home, and the aim of this research is to expand the access of hands-on control education at the undergraduate level. Here, students easily assemble a cost-effective laboratory kit at home and use it on their own computing devices connected with the external MATLAB/SimulinkTM application. Thus, students can test and validate theoretical concepts of control engineering such as: system model identification, and PID control design and test. The assessment results show that the proposed educational project enhances the learning experience and has outstanding positive feedback of more than 290 students who undertook massive flexible digital courses at Tecnologico de Monterrey. This makes the proposed educational project mainly suitable for control engineering courses.

A Project-Based Learning Approach for Building an Affordable Control Teaching Lab: The Centrifugal Ring Positioner

This paper presents a novel experimental setup for teaching control engineering. This setup was developed during a project-based learning activity. The approach consists in training a master student in mechatronics and control through the design, manufacturing, and control of a device that will contribute over time to the education of students by laboratory sessions based on the device. The latter is an easy-to-build, reproducible, and affordable experimental setup called the Centrifugal Ring Positioner (CRP). It aims at illustrating several concepts of closed-loop control (e.g. system identification, model validation, and controller design and validation) while getting acquainted with typical experimental issues like the handling of measurement noise and the real-time implementation of a control law. The CRP distinguishes itself from most pedagogical benchmarks by the wide use of 3D printing. It is an unstable and nonlinear system, consisting of a ring able to slide on a rod thanks to the balance between gravity and centrifugal force. The control of the system aims at stabilizing the ring at any fixed position on the rod. The complete methodology followed during the project-based learning approach to build and control a CRP is detailed, including derivation of a dynamic model based on classical mechanics theory, considerations on the mechanical design, selection of the components, step response and physics-based model identification, and PID controllers design based on computer-assisted methods such as root locus and Bode diagrams.

Control engineering kit for power electronics with cloud connectivity

We describe the components of a versatile kit that can be used to teach control engineering in the context of power electronics. With cloud / internet connectivity, the kit can also be used to demonstrate networked systems. It is possible to connect different loads (DC and 3-phase motors, inductors, etc). The control software can be programmed using different environments. The configuration of the kit is simple enough to be used during lectures in the classroom, or also as a home-lab kit for assignments outside of the classroom / lab.

Challenges of Teaching Control Engineering to Seafarers According to IMO – STCW 2010 Convention During the Mutated Corona Virus (COVID – 19) Pandemic

Mutated corona virus (COVID – 19) pandemic waves attack has significant impact in the maritime sector, and disrupted the smooth functioning of various teaching activities. Following precautionary extra – ordinary measures to limit the spread of infections, on – line implementation to the IMO- STCW 2010 convention was achieved to convey knowledge and proficiency regardless of lecturer’s, candidate’s, and instructor’s capabilities and experience in technological competencies as regard to readiness, accessibility, and platform. The present work is practically based, that is containing enough theories to present adequate understanding of the conceptual relations and cognitive processes. The curricula is complaint with the mandatory minimum requirement for certification for electrical, electronic, and control engineering at the operational and management levels for both principles and practical knowledge for targeted engineering cadets. Barriers in implementing the complete requirements of the IMO- STCW 2010 online encompass: evaluating and assessment lecturer’s and cadet’s satisfaction level, insufficient teaching hours allocated, evaluating teaching syllabus and lecturer’s confidence, reaction and participation, poor or even limited direct communication between lecturers and cadets, difficulty adjusting learning style, technical difficulties faced by lecturers in online teaching and assessments

Noise Control Engineering Education: Recommendations from the 2019 TQA Workshop

This paper summarizes recommendations about noise control engineering education made in a special session on noise control engineering education at NOISE-CON 2019 in San Diego and during an National Academy of Engineering (NAE)-hosted workshop under the auspices of the Technology of Quieter America (TQA) program. Speakers in both the special session and at the workshop represented industry, academe, and government emphasizing the need for more noise control engineers, the expertise required, and the areas in which they are needed. The ensuing discussions, summarized in two published reports, also point to the new technologies that affect noise control engineering education.

Computational Intelligence in Marine Control Engineering Education

Abstract This paper presents a new approach to the existing training of marine control engineering professionals using artificial intelligence. We use optimisation strategies, neural networks and game theory to support optimal, safe ship control by applying the latest scientific achievements to the current process of educating students as future marine officers. Recent advancements in shipbuilding, equipment for robotised ships, the high quality of shipboard game plans, the cost of overhauling, dependability, the fixing of the shipboard equipment and the requesting of the safe shipping and environmental protection, requires constant information on recent equipment and programming for computational intelligence by marine officers. We carry out an analysis to determine which methods of artificial intelligence can allow us to eliminate human subjectivity and uncertainty from real navigational situations involving manoeuvring decisions made by marine officers. Trainees learn by using computer simulation methods to calculate the optimal safe traverse of the ship in the event of a possible collision with other ships, which are mapped using neural networks that take into consideration the subjectivity of the navigator. The game-optimal safe trajectory for the ship also considers the uncertainty in the navigational situation, which is measured in terms of the risk of collision. The use of artificial intelligence methods in the final stage of training on ship automation can improve the practical education of marine officers and allow for safer and more effective ship operation.

Unified and Flexible Online Experimental Framework for Control Engineering Education

This article introduces a unified and flexible experimental framework for massive online experimentation of control education. The new architecture adopts a front-end and back-end separation scheme based on React at frontend and Nginx at backend, and a single page application has been achieved to improve user experience. Multiple features and supporting technologies which provide a flexible, interactive, and real-time platform with enhanced sense of presence and user experience are discussed. The design and implementation of the proposed system are depicted in detail. With the implementation of online algorithm design, the unified framework enables all the functionalities such as web-based algorithm design, parameter tuning, visual configuration of customized user interface, and real-time control with remote and virtual laboratories, which cover the entire process in control education experimentation. A case study with students from two universities shows that the implemented online laboratory framework can support massive students with minimum maintenance required.

3-D Interactive Control Laboratory for Classroom Demonstration and Online Experimentation in Engineering Education

Contribution: A 3-D interactive learning environment, from which students of different levels in the control engineering background can benefit regarding classroom demonstration and online experimentation, is present. The findings support that students can benefit from the application of the online laboratory. Background: Control system design is vital in control engineering education. Conventionally, lectures on control system design are difficult for students to comprehend. Some online laboratories can be used for remote and virtual experiments on control system design. However, little attention has been paid to the possible classroom demonstration using online laboratories. Intended Outcomes: Students in a course on control system design are expected to be able to: 1) comprehend theories and concepts better from improved classroom teaching with online interactive demonstrations; 2) customize control algorithms in after-class experimentation; and 3) tailor monitoring interfaces with rich interactive features. Application Design: Education-oriented technologies are provided to offer both remote and virtual experimental services. 3-D visualization and interaction are achieved which enable great flexibility and interactivities for users. The proportional-integral (PI) control of a remote fan speed control test rig has been used to teach the design of integral anti-windup. Teaching and learning scenarios have been demonstrated regarding students at four different levels, which can help students to comprehend different concepts in control related modules. Findings: The multiyear evaluation results show that there is an improvement in student performance with the application of Networked Control System Laboratory (NCSLab). Students obtained a higher final score in the two class modules on average. Moreover, there is a boost regarding the assessment of the two class modules.

WheelCon: A Wheel Control-Based Gaming Platform for Studying Human Sensorimotor Control.

Feedback control theory has been extensively implemented to theoretically model human sensorimotor control. However, experimental platforms capable of manipulating important components of multiple feedback loops lack development. This paper describes WheelCon, an open-source platform aimed at resolving such insufficiencies. Using only a computer, a standard display, and inexpensive gaming steering wheel equipped with a force feedback motor, WheelCon safely simulates the canonical sensorimotor task of riding a mountain bike down a steep, twisting, bumpy trail. The platform provides flexibility, as will be demonstrated in the demos provided, so that researchers may manipulate the disturbances, delay, and quantization (data rate) in the layered feedback loops, including a high-level advanced plan layer and a low-level delayed reflex layer. In this paper, we illustrate WheelCon's graphical user interface (GUI), the input and output of existing demos, and how to design new games. In addition, we present the basic feedback model and the experimental results from the demo games, which align well with the model's prediction. The WheelCon platform can be downloaded at https://github.com/Doyle-Lab/WheelCon. In short, the platform is featured to be cheap, simple to use, and flexible to program for effective sensorimotor neuroscience research and control engineering education.

A Generic WebLab Control Tuning Experience Using the Ball and Beam Process and Multiobjective Optimization Approach

In control engineering education, the possibility of using a real control system in the learning process motivates professors to improve both students’ knowledge and skills, thus avoiding an approach only based on control theory. While considering that control engineering laboratories are expensive, mainly because educational plants should reproduce classical problems that are found in the industry, the use of virtual laboratories appears as an interesting strategy for reducing costs and improving the diversity of experiments. In this research, remote experimentation was assumed regarding the ball and beam process as an alternative didactic methodology. While assuming a nonlinear and unstable open-loop process, this study presents how students should proceed to control the plant focusing on the topic that is associated with multiobjective optimization. Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller was tuned considering the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) to illustrate the WebLab learning procedures described in this research. The proposed strategy was compared to the Åström’s robust loop shaping method to emphasize the performance of the multiobjective optimization technique. Analyzing the feedback provided by the students, remote experimentation can be seen as an interesting approach for the future of engineering learning, once it can be directly associated with industry demand of connected machines and real-time information analysis.