Development Of A Remote Systems And Controls Laboratory

The Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics at Michigan Technological University has developed a remote version of a required undergraduate laboratory that is a practical and relevant component of an engineer’s education. The purpose is to provide a combined mechanical engineering laboratory experience that reinforces the traditional elements of a curriculum—available to everyone, anywhere. As part of a quarter to semester conversion at MTU a Dynamic Systems and Controls laboratory was integrated with the traditionally required textbook course. The goal of the lab was to illustrate some of the abstract concepts of the course using "hands-on” experience. A secondary goal of the lab was to strengthen a student’s understanding of Computer Aided Control System Design (CACSD). The second phase of the development of this lab was to determine and overcome the challenges and barriers of implementing the lab remotely. This paper describes our approach to converting traditional onsite control system labs to remote versions. In addition, limitations inherent to remote experiment execution are described along with our plan for testing and assessing the ability of the remote labs to convey practical aspects of control system phenomena.