Integrated Engineering Systems and Controls Laboratory

这个项目启动了一个本科的系统和控制实验室，将由电气、机械、化学和生物资源以及土木工程系使用。众所周知，单靠课堂练习或计算机模拟不足以培养学生所需的批判性思维和解决问题的技能。该项目的目的是通过使用多学科实验室来解决这些问题，该实验室围绕中央系统和控制主题而建，并与每个系的适当课程一起运行。学生学习如何结合课程不同部分的知识，并应用这些知识来实现预期的工程目标。该实验室配备了以下领域的实验：核心控制实验，说明系统的基本原理和关于质量/弹簧/阻尼器系统和伺服机构等常见问题的控制理论；电学重点，促进更详细地研究机电控制问题，包括由晶闸管、脉宽调制和变频驱动控制的直流和交流电机；化学和生物资源实验，允许研究流体流动和热传输，以及自动调整，并在模型化工设备上进行自适应控制；和机械重点，涉及混合/监督控制的研究，以及如何利用机器人和自动化制造工作站整合机器(具有适当的交叉通信)以执行高级任务。这些实验使用工业中常见的控制问题和现代实时控制和仪器策略，每个实验都由一台具有数据采集功能和虚拟仪器软件的PC驱动。这种设置使学生能够在现实项目中获得经验，并发展最新的实用设计技能。

This project initiates an undergraduate systems and controls laboratory, which will be utilized by the Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical and Bioresource, and Civil Engineering Departments. It is well recognized that classroom exercises or computer simulations alone are not sufficient to develop the critical-thinking and problem-solving skills students need. The intent of this project is to address these issues with the use of a multidisciplinary laboratory, built around a central systems and controls theme and running in conjunction with the appropriate courses in each department. The students learn how to combine knowledge from various parts of the curriculum and apply that knowledge to achieve a desired engineering goal. The laboratory is equipped with experiments in the following areas: core controls experiments, illustrating fundamentals of systems and control theory on typically encountered problems such as mass/spring/damper systems and servomechanisms; electrical emphasis, facilitating more detailed study of electromechanical control problems, including DC and AC machines controlled by thyristors, pulse width modulation, and variable frequency drives; chemical and bioresource emphasis, allowing study of fluid flow and heat transfer, together with autotuning, and adaptive control on a model chemical process rig; and mechanical emphasis, involving the study of hybrid/supervisory control, and how to integrate machines (with appropriate cross-communication) to perform high-level tasks, using a robotics and automated manufacturing workstation. The experiments use control problems commonly encountered in industry and modern real-time control and instrumentation strategies, with each experiment driven from a PC with data acquisition capabilities and virtual instrumentation software. This setup enables students to gain experience on realistic projects and develop practical design skills that are up to date.