Picles Tm A Simulator For "Virtual World" Education And Training In Process Dynamics And Control

Practice in applying textbook theory is motivating, promotes critical thinking, facilitates understanding of the use and limitations of the theory, and helps prepare students for the challenges of the professional world. For process dynamics and control, PiclesTM, the Process Identification and Control Loop Explorer System, is a cost effective way to provide this practice. Picles is PC/DOS compatible software now being used in process dynamics and control courses around the world for the education of students and training of practitioners. Picles is easy-to-use, visually appealing and provides the capability to explore a wide range of process dynamics and control concepts. Thus, students can quickly and inexpensively gain experience which benefits their education. Picles contains a series of case studies, animated in color-graphic display, for self-paced or instructor guided learning. Users can manipulate process variables in open loop to obtain pulse, step, sinusoidal or ramped test data. The data can be recorded as printer plots or disk files for process identification and controller design. DigestTM, companion software to Picles, is one package well suited for this identification and design task. After designing a controller, students then return to Picles and immediately evaluate and improve upon the design for both set point tracking and disturbance rejection. The processes and controllers available in Picles enable the exploration and study of increasingly challenging concepts in an orderly fashion. Early concepts to explore include the basics of process dynamic behavior such as process gain, time constant and dead time. Intermediate concepts include the tuning and performance capabilities of all modes of the PID controller. Advanced concepts include cascade, decoupling, feed forward, dead time compensation and digital control. After a review of Picles processes and controllers, brief summaries of two case studies are presented which illustrate how Picles can be used to obtain virtual world experience in the theoretical concepts of process dynamics and control. To obtain a copy of the software and a host of basic, intermediate and advanced case studies, please contact the author.