This project is aimed at designing very effective lab experiments for a control systems lab that are less expensive than what is already available. The project can be broken up into three parts: the physical plant, the data acquisition unit managed by a microcontroller, and the design of the control system in Simulink. Since the magnetic levitation system is simple in the physical construction, we will analyze and construct this particular experiment first. Secondly, we will attempt to design a motor control lab experiment that effectively teaches the principles of PID motor control.
We will utilize these physical plants in conjunction with several microcontrollers and Simulink. There are Simulink support packages and drivers already available for Microchip, Arduino, and STMicroelectronics. Therefore, we will use these microcontrollers for interfacing with Simulink. There are several variations of each family of microprocessor, but we will use the models from each manufacturer that are best suited for our applications.
First, from microchip we will use the DSPPIC33FJ128GP802 microcontroller. Second, from the Arduino family: the UNO R3, the MEGA R3, and the Arduino Due R3. Lastly, from STMicroelectronics we will use their Nucleo-F302R8 board. Simulink can take control block diagrams the user designs and compile them into code that can be placed directly onto the microcontrollers. With these microcontrollers and Simulink a student can perform interactive tuning and monitoring of the output. Even though the microcontrollers will not communicate in real-time with Simulink, one of our projects goals is to see whether the speed of the serialized communication will suffice in order to be used as an inexpensive educational tool in the controls laboratory.
For the magnetic levitation lab each of these microcontrollers will be wired to take readings from several different sensors that are measuring the position of a levitating object. The use of many different types of sensors is intended primarily to show the student that there are many different sensor that can be used to control the position of the levitating object, some perform better than others in a given situation. For the magnetic levitation experiment, the microcontroller will be programmed with the modeling done in Simulink to respond to the sensor feedback and pulse width modulate the current through the magnetic coil of the device to force the levitating object up or down as necessary till the object has stabilized.
Finally, once our physical plants and microcontrollers have been set up correctly, we will design an interactive block diagram in Simulink of the physical plants in order to teach the control systems in a lab setting. Explanation will be given for each part of the block diagram and parameters can be changed to see their effect on the output.
Educational Control System 