The New Motors And Controls Laboratory At Howard University

A generous equipment donation from Moog Aerospace has enabled the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Howard University to develop a new motor and control laboratory using state-of-the-art industrial motor controls. Accordingly, a laboratory has been renovated and equipped with three-phase power to house the new workstations. The hardware for each of these workstations is mostly complete, but refinements are continuing on the humanmachine interface, controls, and data acquisition system. The key hardware element of such capability is an embeddable dSpace digital signal processor (DSP) controller board that can be connected to various sensors and actuators, depending upon the system objectives. The workstations offer many possibilities for experimentation on motors and controls similar to those that students will encounter in the “the real world.” Moreover, laboratory experiments are being developed for the workstations. These experiments will supplement junior-and senior-level undergraduate lecture classes.