Design and development of a flexible control laboratory plant for educational purposes

Vanessa Lara, Hector Vargas, Cristian Castro, Jesus Chacon, Luis De La Torre

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Theory and practice in control education come together into hands-on laboratories. Control laboratories are commonly composed by a set of didactical plants (typically plants of liquid level control in tanks, temperature control, speed and position control in motors, among others) on which students perform the practical experiences required by the teaching staff. However, given that these plants usually have a fixed structure (normally first or second order models), the creation of control learning activities for different type and order plants are not possible. In this context, this paper presents a flexible educational plant which has been designed as a set of electronic modules based on operational amplifiers which can be combined to create different transfer functions (or plants) and perform PID control on it. This plant is accompanied by a data acquisition system that allows sending and receiving signals to and from the modules and visualizing the results through a graphical user interface developed in LabVIEW. The application also includes an additional tool to compare simulated and real responses for analysis and validation purposes of the designed controllers.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationIEEE ICA-ACCA 2018 - IEEE International Conference on Automation/23rd Congress of the Chilean Association of Automatic Control
Subtitle of host publicationTowards an Industry 4.0 - Proceedings
EditorsCristian Duran-Faundez, Gaston Lefranc, Mario Fernandez-Fernandez, Carlos Munoz, Ernesto Rubio
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN (Electronic)9781538655863
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Jul 2018
EventIEEE International Conference on Automation/23rd Congress of the Chilean Association of Automatic Control: Towards an Industry 4.0, ICA-ACCA 2018 - Greater Concepcion, Chile
Duration: 17 Oct 201819 Oct 2018

Publication series

NameIEEE ICA-ACCA 2018 - IEEE International Conference on Automation/23rd Congress of the Chilean Association of Automatic Control: Towards an Industry 4.0 - Proceedings

Conference

ConferenceIEEE International Conference on Automation/23rd Congress of the Chilean Association of Automatic Control: Towards an Industry 4.0, ICA-ACCA 2018
Country/TerritoryChile
CityGreater Concepcion
Period17/10/1819/10/18

Keywords

  • Control Education
  • Didactical Plants
  • Operational Amplifiers
  • PID Control
  • Transfer Function

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