Web-Assisted Experimentation: Enhancing Controls Education

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The objective of this project is to improve undergraduate controls engineering education. Students frequently have difficulties in learning controls, because it is often the first subject in which they must use the properties of complex variables and the fundamentals of linear algebra in a sophisticated manner. To associate these mathematical concepts with the behavior of physical systems, experimentation or realistic simulations are essential. The proposed "assistants" will make experimentation in undergraduate-level controls easier by providing students not only with animations of physical systems which the student can control, but also with on-line instruction and documentation for actual laboratory equipment. The assistants will enable students to more quickly apply control system design and analysis knowledge presented to them. A prototype of these assistants for a motor speed control laboratory can be viewed on the WWW at http://www.me.cmu.edu/faculty1/messner/classes/24-246/labs/. The main innovation of these education aids is their implementation on the WWW. They are an extension of the highly successful Controls Tutorials for MATLAB developed previously by the Pls. The Web-based assistants will combine explanatory text, animated realistic simulations of physical systems, graphics and photographs of actual experimental apparatus. The assistants will contain detailed instructions on procedures for running simulations and conducting experiments, and will be integrated with additional information on theory and control system design, such as the Control Tutorials for MATLAB.