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A lab for undergraduate control engineering education equipped with industrial distributed control systems
Author(s) -
Dittmar Rainer,
Kahlcke Thomas
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
computer applications in engineering education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.478
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1099-0542
pISSN - 1061-3773
DOI - 10.1002/cae.21708
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , distributed control system , pid controller , process (computing) , control (management) , control system , computer science , engineering education , process control , software , control engineering , systems engineering , industrial control system , engineering , manufacturing engineering , software engineering , engineering management , operating system , temperature control , electrical engineering , artificial intelligence , paleontology , biology
The paper demonstrates how a set of pilot plant air blower/heater systems connected to modern industrial distributed control systems (DCS) are used in different control engineering laboratories for the undergraduate level. Student's tasks include the identification of static and dynamic process models and the tuning and commissioning of Proportional‐Integral‐Derivative (PID) control loops, as well as the utilization of commercial tools for DCS engineering. Using the same pilot plants, DCS and scientific computing environment in different courses lowers the costs, allows the reutilization of results and enables an efficient lab organization. It also supports the process of learning the inner context of different control engineering related subjects. The use of industrial‐scale equipment and commercial software helps students to easily integrate in their later teams and to avoid the “reality shock” when making the transition from academia to industry. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 24:288–296, 2016; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae ; DOI 10.1002/cae.21708