Teaching Automobile, Flight And System Dynamics Using Innovative Motion Simulation Experiments

This paper discusses the design and extension of a set of motion simulation experiments and their subsequent incorporation into an innovative framework to teach engineering systems analysis and flight dynamics, including topics such as system control, stability, feedback, and design. These are fundamental concepts at the core of many engineering systems including mechanical, aerospace, electrical, thermal, and fluid systems. Many engineers are increasingly turning to simulation and virtual prototyping, rather than physical prototyping, to explore new design concepts. As the use of simulation increases across all of engineering, the demand for students with hands-on experience in configuring, executing, and understanding simulationbased experimentation will also increase. In this paper, we present the results from integrating experience-based system simulation modules into a series of vehicle dynamics courses. We also present experiential modules to integrate the motion simulation system into a required juniorlevel mechanical engineering course and in a required senior-level flight dynamics aerospace engineering course. This paper reports on work done under National Science Foundation grant DUE-0633596 in the Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) program. 1 Background and Motivation: Cyber-enhanced Education In engineering education, relating theoretical and analytical results to real-world phenomena is one of the most difficult tasks. While text, equations, diagrams, and graphs are an efficient means of presenting large amounts of information, such representations are, necessarily, abstractions of reality. A significant portion of a student’s learning process is learning how to transform these abstractions into knowledge that will allow them to apply their understanding to real-world products and systems. Many attempts to bridge this gap are employed by educators, including in-class demonstrations, laboratory experiments, videos, and computer graphic simulations 1-4 . In a study of the application of information technology to education, the President’s Information Technology Advisory Council 5 recommended the development of technologies for education and training that use simulation, visualization, and gaming to actively engage students in the learning experience. In the same report, PITAC also recommended the development of educational experiences that provide learners with “access to world-class facilities and experiences using either actual or simulated devices”. The benefits of imitating a real process by way of simulation cannot be understated. The educational value of simulations does not necessarily lie in the program itself, but rather, in the overall experience of the simulation 6 . Using a simulated digital environment to supplement traditional instruction is not a new concept. Early attempts to understand the role of digital environments in workplace instruction demonstrated the potential of computer simulations acting as a cognitive apprentice 7 . The use of virtual laboratory environments to replace or supplement physical experiments in engineering education emerged soon after that. Virtual laboratory experiments were created to supplement the physical laboratories to teach various electronics and circuitry concepts 8 . Both quantitative P ge 15168.2 and qualitative results strongly supported the use of the virtual experiments as a supplemental source of learning. Baher created a virtual laboratory to provide students with more and quicker access to feedback on the thermodynamic performance of their virtual and simulated design concepts 9 . Studies across three universities demonstrated potential to provide valuable additional instruction to students using the virtual simulations. Other simulated environments have been developed to enhance or replace the traditional physical instruction of a number of engineering topics including nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy 10 , unit operations 11 , system dynamics 12 , ultra-precision machining 13 , and strength of materials 14 . While the associated educational strategies and relative effectiveness are still being developed and studied, there would seem to be a synthesis between cyber-enhanced engineering education and the social culture of today’s engineering students. The current generation of engineering students is defined by the digital culture they create and in which they live 15 . While most students are familiar with the use of digital tools for everyday applications, it is natural to wonder if educators and researchers in the engineering fields can and should capitalize on the emerging multimodal digital literacies to facilitate pedagogical goals. In this paper, we present the implementation of an innovative digital environment and set of experiments for coupling motion simulation and educational practices together in an engaging, learner-centered approach. 2 Cyber-Enhanced Implementation: Dynamics Education The theory of vehicle dynamics is familiar to all students in an engineering curriculum, in that everyone has either driven or been a passenger in an automobile. Thus, vehicle motions are inherently familiar to the student. Also, with over 40 million vehicles being manufactured each year worldwide 16 , advances in computing technology and vehicle systems have expanded the influence engineers have over the stability and control of vehicle dynamics. Augmenting systems such as anti-lock brakes, electronic skid prevention, yaw control, active differentials, and similar “active” vehicle design systems improve safety and performance over traditional passive designs. This increased control over the automobile will soon be inseparable from the increased complexity of the subsystems, all of which will combine to determine handling characteristics of the automobile. As a result, engineers are increasingly turning to simulation and virtual prototyping, rather than physical prototyping, to explore new design concepts. As the usage of simulation increases, the demand for students with hands-on experience in configuring and executing simulation-based research will also increase. In addition, many engineering students have experienced controlling a sophisticated driving or motion simulation environment in the form of digital game-based driving or flight simulators such as the Wii, PS3, or Xbox gaming platforms or more realistic driving simulation platforms 1721 . However, they do not necessarily associate the gaming environment with the models, equations, and system dynamics that engineers employ to design the driven vehicle or aircraft. Yet, video games and gaming systems have increasingly been found in applications more diverse than just entertainment, including use in training, education, research, and simulation. This emerging field of Serious Games 22-24 is intended to provide an environment for an accurate and an engaging context within which to motivate participants beyond the capability of conventional approaches. Computerized simulations implemented expressly for educational P ge 15168.3 purposes, sometimes also referred to as “Edutainment” 25,26 , can indeed be powerful tools for learning. They allow learners to: a) manipulate otherwise unalterable variables, b) view phenomena from new perspectives, c) observe large system behavior over time, d) pose hypothetical questions to a system, e) visualize a system in multiple dimensions, and f) compare simulation behavior with that of the “real life” system. By enabling students to interact directly with a model of a complex system (e.g. a driving simulation), simulations place learners in a unique position to understand a system’s dynamics. Consequently, this paper presents the continued development and evaluation of a driving and flight simulation-based learning environment that provides an authentic and engaging context for mechanical engineering education. The framework presented in this paper is designed to promote hands-on student participation in authentic engineering experiences that enhance conventional learning mechanisms for systems analysis and flight dynamics. The approach leverages authentic off-road driving and flight simulation environments and incorporates realtime simulation and large-scale visualization. These experiences facilitate the student discovery of the impact that design decisions have on vehicle and aircraft design and the underlying scientific system dynamics and control principles that guide such design decisions. The ideally authentic experience in vehicle dynamics education would be to have students drive real automobiles, perform specific driving maneuvers, use on-board instrumentation to collect vehicle data, and modify the vehicle to observe resulting changes in its characteristics. While not impossible, concerns about cost, time, space, safety, and weather constraints deem this option impractical at most schools. An alternative solution is, indeed, to make use of an authentic, simulated driving environment. While driving-game based approaches have been developed for mental health, driver workload, and rehabilitation applications 27-29 , gaming-based contexts have not, to date, been used in vehicle dynamics education. Accordingly, this paper presents the development of a motion simulation-based learning environment that provides an authentic and engaging context for dynamics education. In the next sections, we describe the development of the experiments and their implementation in automobile, flight and system dynamics courses. 3 Vehicle Dynamics Implementation The hardware and software framework used to develop and implement the innovation cyberenhanced experiential learning modules is more fully described in previous work 30-32 . Briefly, the motion simulator consists of a six degree-of-freedom electrically actuated motion platform. The device accommodates two passengers in a front-seat vehicle passenger cabin – a 1999 Ford Contour vehicle that