ARCHITECTURE FOR RESEARCH, TRAINING AND EDUCATION IN CONTROL ENGINEERING

Traditional control engineering teaching methods heavily rely on abstract mathematical concepts, often leaving students puzzled about real-world applications. Common simulation tools, such as MATLAB and Simulink provide a good visual demonstration but don't necessarily bridge the gap between theory and application. The proposed ‘lab-in-a-box’ approach offers a tangible method for students to connect control theory with a practical control engineering experience. The literature has observed a shift towards such portable labs, given the advancements in compact computing devices such as Raspberry Pi and Arduino boards in electronics and control teaching. The primary goal of these labs is to deliver an authentic engineering experience with essential hardware. Evaluation of this method, through the student module evaluation questionnaire (MEQ), revealed a significant increase in student satisfaction after its introduction. While the results are promising, challenges remain, such as the initial set-up of the kits. However, the ‘lab-in-a-box’ is found to be a valuable tool in control engineering education, bridging the gap between theoretical and practical understanding. An on-going development includes updating of the kits to match future engineering challenges and needs, e.g., electrification and autonomy of vehicles.

The paper presents educational issues related to the development and implementation of low-cost control solutions and algorithms used in the syllabus of control engineering courses applied to the Magnetic Levitation System with 2 Electromagnets laboratory equipment. Real-time experiments are included to accompany the laboratory-based education in control engineering.

In response to the article Undergraduate control education: an ME perspective, by Agrawal, this article presents the author's view on several key issues in control engineering education, some are pertinent to electrical engineering (EE), some are more general. These issues include: 1) in comparison to mechanical engineering (ME) and other engineering disciplines, what does EE have to offer in control engineering education? and 2) does an undergraduate control curriculum have to start from LTI system theory? The author proposes some radical thoughts about fundamental changes in the infrastructure and pedagogical structure for control engineering education with ramifications to control engineering practices. These suggestions include: 1) seriously considering the advantages and drawbacks of centralized and independent control and systems engineering program, and 2) changing the entry point to control engineering curriculum from LTI to nonlinear system theory.

Education in Control Engineering for the Designers of Environmental Processes

Computer Simulation and Animation Environment for Control Education

This paper presents one education system for control engineering, which consists of a two-floor building structural model with a moving controllable cart device lying on the top floor, namely a miniature AMD control system. The structure is controlled by the AMD, when it vibrates subjected to external disturbance. Both the calculation model and physical implementation are given according to observer based full-state feedback control design specifications, which includes designing and tuning of a proportional-velocity (PV) position controller, mathematically modeling the system's state-space representation through Lagrange's method, designing and tuning of a full-order state-observer based on the structural acceleration feedback, at last designing a real-time mode-switching experiment using a predefined logic sequence to alternate between a mode of repeatable structural excitation and an active mass damping control mode to depress the structure's vibration to show the effectiveness of using AMD control system in suppressing structural vibration. The results show the procedures using AMD device system in control engineering education.

Technical University Level Education and Training in Control Engineering in Finland Address at the Opening Ceremony of the 7th IFAC World Congress

The 2021 4th International Conference on Advanced Algorithms and Control Engineering (ICAACE 2021) was successfully held online through Zoom on Jan. 29-31, 2021. Due to COVID-19 and the pandemic-related nationwide lockdowns and other coordinated restrictive measures, the organizers decided to hold a conference in a virtual format with the organization of access for all participants to the presented reports with comprehensive discussion for ensuring the event at a high scientific level.ICAACE 2021 is to bring together innovative academics and industrial experts in the field of advanced algorithms and control engineering to a common forum. The primary goal of the conference is to promote research and developmental activities in advanced algorithms and control engineering. And another goal is to promote scientific information interchange between researchers, developers, engineers, students, and practitioners working all around the world. The conference will be held every year to make it an ideal platform for people to share views and experiences in advanced algorithms and control engineering and related areas.The safety and well-being of all conference participants is our priority. The COVID-19 is unpredictable, so conference postponement met uncertainty, while many scholars and researchers want to attend this long-waited conference and have academic exchanges with their peers. But I want to note that there are no barriers to science, and we continue to work on our research areas remotely, using modern technical means. Under this situation, the conference model was divided into three sessions, including oral presentations, keynote speeches, and online Q&A discussion. In the first part, some scholars, whose submissions were selected as the excellent papers, were given about 5-10 minutes to perform their oral presentations one by one. Then in the second part, keynote speakers were each allocated 30-45 minutes to hold their speeches.More than 110 participants attended the meeting. We were greatly honored to have invited Prof. Ghassan Beydoun, from University of Technology Sydney and A. Prof. Antti Rasila, from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Guangdong Technion to serve as our General Conference Chair. There were over 20 experts and scholars in the area of Advanced Algorithms and Control Engineering representing different famous universities and institutes around the globe to form Conference Committees.List of Committee members are available in the pdf.

The tower crane (TCR) laboratory model by INTECO is a suitable aid for research and education in control engineering and mechatronics. Its modelling and control encompasses three basic subsystems: 1. motion of the trolley in the radial direction along the arm 2. angular displacement of the arm in the rotary direction, and 3. damping of payload oscillations. The paper focuses on dynamic model identification and controller design of the trolley position along the arm as well as damping of payload oscillation in x-direction.

This paper describes an integrated learning platform intended to support Internet-based control-engineering education. Four environments have been developed, namely, remote experimentation, mathematical analysis, dynamic simulation, and self-learning. The learning platform is a virtual support for problem-based education in control engineering. The reported development allows multiple users the access to concepts and both experimental and computational resources through an intuitive and powerful user interface that only requires a Web browser, a low-bandwidth Internet connection, and low user-side technical specifications. The server side is scalable and reproducible since it is based on general public license (GPL) Linux operating system and a Matlab license. The integration of the proposed theoretical, computational, and experimental tools improves previous experiences in Internet-based control education.

MODULAR CONTROL LABORATORY ARCHITECTURE

The paper demonstrates how a four‐tank laboratory process equipped with a modern distributed control system (DCS) is used in different control engineering laboratories for the undergraduate and graduate levels. This includes the utilization of commercial tools for DCS engineering as well as the design and commissioning of traditional and advanced control solutions. Using the same pilot plant and control system in different modules lowers the costs, allows the reutilization of results and enables an efficient laboratory organization. It also supports the process of learning the inner context of different process control related subjects. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 21: 313–321, 2013

This paper presents Automatic Control Engineering Laboratory (ACEL) - WebLab, an under-developed, internet-based remote laboratory for control engineering education at the Faculty of Electronic Engineering in Niš. Up to now, the remote laboratory integrates two physical systems (velocity servo system and magnetic levitation system) and enables some levels of measurement and control. To perform experiments in ACEL-WebLab, the "LabVIEW Run Time Engine"and a standard web browser are needed.

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) by undergraduates majoring in Instrumentation and Control Engineering (ICE) at University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. We conducted a questionnaire survey to assess the awareness and usage habits of these LLMs among ICE undergraduates in ICE courses, focusing on the model types, frequency, self‐study tasks and post‐usage feedback. The survey results indicate that ChatGPT is the most frequently used model among ICE undergraduates. Furthermore, we evaluated the performance of GPT‐3.5 and GPT‐4 on a set of 342 ICE questions sourced from the China MOOC platform. The results reveal significant performance differences between GPT‐3.5 and GPT‐4 across various ICE sub‐disciplines and question types. GPT‐4 shows particular proficiency in understanding control technology and system, achieving an accuracy of 82.16%, compared to 68.42% for GPT‐3.5. Finally, we explore the factors influencing students use LLMs for ICE self‐study and propose strategies for teachers to incorporate LLMs into ICE courses. This study highlights the potential of LLMs to enhance ICE education and provides concrete examples of their application in engineering coursework.

The Petri Net Toolbox (PN Toolbox) for MATLAB is a software package that offers instruments for the simulation, analysis and design of untimed, deterministic and stochastic P-/T-timed and stochastic Petri nets (PNs). The facilities available in this toolbox are appropriate for studying the dynamics of many classes of discrete-event systems. The Petri Net Simulink Block (PNSB) allows the modeling and analysis of hybrid systems whose event-driven part(s) is (are) modeled based on the PN formalism. The current paper focuses on the exploitation of the PN Toolbox for illustrating the usage of the PN theory in Control Engineering from the pedagogic point of view, the discussion being supported by example problems and comments on the teaching goals. The PN Toolbox is included in the Connections Program of The MathWorks Inc., as a third party product.