Robust Gain-Scheduled PSD Controller Design from Educational Perspective

The highly mathematical nature of introductory level vibrations and control theory courses results in students struggling to understand the concepts. Hands-on activity demonstrated in class can help them better understand the concepts. However, there is still an ongoing effort to lower the currently substantial cost of educational laboratory equipment for undergraduate-level engineering courses. Also, with the COVID-19 crisis, the Spring 2020 academic year took an unexpected turn for academics and students all over the world. Engineering faculty who teach laboratories had to move online and instruct from home. Online course preparation takes more time and effort compared to traditionally designed face-to-face courses and was compounded considering the unprecedented situation where many instructors didn't have time to record data from existing lab equipment or record video in their laboratories. In this paper, we present a Matlab Simscape GUI program designed to simulate modeling and control of dynamical systems for vibrations and control theory courses, and their associated laboratories, as one potential solution for online instruction. To complement the simulation program, online classroom and homework activities were designed using a learning sciences approach connecting several critical educational theories which can bolster student motivation, engagement with the material, and overall learning performance. The simulation is presented along with data from 19 students who completed the associated classroom and homework activities. Survey results probing student perceptions about the value of the learning tasks for the simulation were overwhelmingly positive and indicate this approach holds promise in supporting student learning.

This paper is devoted to a cycle of laboratory works on the control theory course for students of MPEI. This course was developed for the bachelor students of Institute of Thermal and Nuclear Power Engineering studying on the educational program Automation of technological processes in thermal power engineering, so dynamical characteristics of plants and processes under consideration are typical for thermal ones, for example, surface heat exchangers. The cycle consists of five laboratory works which may be carried out in Matlab/Simulilnk or Scilab/Xcos. Short descriptions of the laboratory works are given, the purpose of each of them, the skills and knowledge being improved, developed or obtained through each laboratory works are specified. The paper also describes how the laboratory works are connected with other aspects of the control theory course and with other bachelor and master courses and how the results obtained by the students may be further used. In order to make the classes more interesting and useful for all students, some variants of varying laboratory works are described. Advantages of using Scilab/Xcos for these laboratory works are given.

Technical characteristics of an innovative prototype e-learning platform using satellite communications for control theory courses are exposed. A detailed account of all necessary tools and mechanisms is presented enabling real time text, and audio/video based communication between tutors and learners. The provided end-user driven services include: a virtual classroom, offline operation, sharing of applications, private/public chatting, audio/video streaming. In addition a concise description of the pilot network architecture depending on the DVB-RCS standard is presented justifying further the choice of the communications platform. Simulation results concerning the teaching of fundamental issues in Networked Control Theory within the proposed architecture are provided. Connections with hybrid configurations such as wireless terrestrial broadband technologies (DVB-RCS/ WiMAX, DVB-RCS/Wi-Fi) are further analyzed and justified. Finally some conclusive anticipated directions related to the future of modern control courses education in connection with state of art technological advances are explored. AMS (classification): 97U50, 97U70, 97U80, 97D99

The combination of the automatic control theory courses, simulation verification and practical implementation of the designed controller algorithms in real-time conditions is very important for training of the control engineers.This contribution present structure and usage of Self-tuning Controllers Simulink Library (STCSL) for real time control.The STCSL was created for design, simulation verification and especially realtime implementation of single input -single output (SISO) digital self-tuning controllers.The proposed adaptive controllers, which are included in the library, can be divided into three groups (PID controllers, controllers based on the polynomial approach and the controllers derived on the other approaches (minimum variance etc.).This Library is very successfully used in Adaptive Control Course in education practice for design and verification of self-tuning control systems in simulation and real-time conditions.It is suitable also for design and verification of industrial digital controllers.The highly nonlinear laboratory model, the DR300 Speed Control with Variable Load, has been chosen as example for real-time control.

Optimal Protection from Impact, Shock, and Vibration

Towards a Modern Concept for Teaching Control Engineering

This chapter describes a pragmatic approach to using open source and free software tools as valuable resources to affect learning of software industry practices using iterative and incremental development methods. The authors discuss how the above resources are used in teaching undergraduate Software Engineering (SE) courses. More specifically, they illustrate iterative and incremental development, documenting software requirements, version control and source code management, coding standards compliance, design visualization, software testing, software metrics, release deliverables, software engineering ethics, and professional practices. The authors also present how they positioned the activities of this course to qualify it for writing intensive designation. End of semester course evaluations and anecdotal evidence indicate that the proposed approach is effective in educating students in software industry practices.

Iterative learning control design for linear discrete-time systems with multiple high-order internal models

Notice of Violation of IEEE Publication Principles<br><br>"System Model and Controller Design of an Inverted Pendulum"<br>by Baoping Xiao, Chang Xu, and Lijun Xu<br>in the Proceedings of the 2009 Second International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems, April 2009, pp 356-359<br><br>After careful and considered review of the content and authorship of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE's Publication Principles.<br><br>This paper is a near verbatim copy of the work cited below. The original text and figures were copied without attribution (including appropriate references to the original author(s) and/or paper title) and without permission.<br><br>Due to the nature of this violation, reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper, and future references should be made to the following article:<br><br>"The Inverted Pendulum"<br>by John Stang,<br>as a Student Project: ECE691, May 2005<br> http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/eceprojectsland/STUDENTPROJ/2004to2005/jss67/index.html<br><br> <br/> The inverted pendulum is a classical control problem, which involves developing a system to balance a pendulum. For visualization purposes, this is similar to trying to balance a broomstick on a finger. There are three main subsystems that compose this design including the mechanical system, the feedback network which includes sensors and a method to read them, and a controller and its interface to the mechanical system. The system model, state space representation and controller design is described, the model is converted into state space form, and is used to design a controller using the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) cost equation. The final system results in a cart that could balance a pendulum for a limited amount of time. This was due to many imperfections in the mechanical system and the inability to model the dynamics of these imperfections along with the calculation limitations of the Atmel Mega32.

Current technology enables the lecturer to use computer tools to enhance the conceptualisation of lecture material. This can be especially useful in an engineering curriculum, as the course material can be rendered less abstract through visual illustration of difficult mathematical concepts. In this paper, we present an example of a multimedia enhanced course in linear control theory, taught by authors at Ryerson Polytechnic University (Toronto, Canada). In our implementation of the course, we combine software simulations of practical systems to illustrate control theory concepts with extensive online course notes to assist with comprehension. Followup analysis shows that the use of the WWW and computer tools to enhance the learning process leads to increased enthusiasm, comprehension, and information retention. A review of the process required to create the technology enabled learning environment shows that initially there is a great deal of work involved. However, we conclude that the effort is justified by allowing a positive qualitative change in the way we educate engineering students.

The experiment lessons are the most important complementary parts of theory learning for automatic control theory course. But many studentds usually don‘t’ take care of them. So it is important how to organize an effective experiment lesson in order to deal with these problems. In this paper, a method to organize an experiment lesson is presented, and it is proved very good through real applications.

Robust H ∞ controller design for linear uncertain systems with delayed state and control

Wireless communication provides users many benefits such as portability, flexibility, reduced hardware need and lower installation costs. Wireless local area networks (WLANs) for example allow users the ability to carry their laptops from place to place without any physical wires and without losing network connectivity.However, some amount of security risk is always associated with wireless networks. The most significant security risk for wireless technology is the potential outsiders have in gaining access to the communications medium, the communications medium being the air waves. Though WLANs provide the users with the option of roaming, this convenience is facilitated by broadcasting packets to anyone with compatible equipment within range of a transmitting device. This broadcasting of packets induces a compromise between convenience and security. Having an unsecured WLAN can result in a loss of service, or can be used as a staging area to launch attacks against other networks. The significant challenges faced today in securing wireless LANs are maintaining privacy, data confidentiality, and preventing unauthorized access using proper access control mechanisms.As wireless networking and security become more prevalent in the market, more and more computer science programs are incorporating courses in wireless networks or at the least, devoting a significant percentage of the advanced networking courses to wireless topics. As a result, in addition to industry practitioners, there is a growing interest among university researchers and faculty regarding tools used in monitoring and assessing security threats for wireless networks.This paper will demonstrate and evaluate a free and open source software tool, called Network Stumbler, used for monitoring and assessing security threats for wireless networks. Network Stumbler is a Windows-based tool that allows you to detect Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) using 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.11g. It has many uses:• Verifies that your network is set up the way you intended.• Find locations with poor coverage in your WLAN.• Detects other networks that may be causing interference on your network.• Detects unauthorized rogue access points in your workplace.• Helps aim directional antennas for long-haul WLAN links.• Can be used recreationally for WarDriving.

The present paper addresses linear parameter-varying systems with high-order time-varying parameter dependency known as polynomial LPV systems and their controller design. Throughout this work, a procedure ensuring a state-feedback controller from a parameterized linear matrix inequality (PLMI) solution is presented. As the main contribution of this paper, the controller is designed by considering the time-varying parameter rate as a tuning parameter with a continuous control gain in such a way that the closed-loop eigenvalues lie in a complex plane subset, with high-order time-varying parameters defining the system dynamics. Simulation results are presented, aiming to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller design.

A widely used approach to achieving service level objectives for a software system (e.g., an email server) is to add a controller that manipulates the target system's tuning parameters. We describe a methodology for designing such controllers for software systems that builds on classical control theory. The classical approach proceeds in two steps: system identification and controller design. In system identification, we construct mathematical models of the target system. Traditionally, this has been based on a first-principles approach, using detailed knowledge of the target system. Such models can be complex and difficult to build, validate, use, and maintain. In our methodology, a statistical (ARMA) model is fit to historical measurements of the target being controlled. These models are easier to obtain and use and allow us to apply control-theoretic design techniques to a larger class of systems. When applied to a Lotus Notes groupware server, we obtain model fits with R/sup 2/ no lower than 75% and as high as 98%. In controller design, an analysis of the models leads to a controller that will achieve the service level objectives. We report on an analysis of a closed-loop system using an integral control law with Lotus Notes as the target. The objective is to maintain a reference queue length. Using root-locus analysis from control theory, we are able to predict the occurrence (or absence) of controller-induced oscillations in the system's response. Such oscillations are undesirable since they increase variability, thereby resulting in a failure to meet the service level objective. We implement this controller for a real Lotus Notes system, and observe a remarkable correspondence between the behavior of the real system and the predictions of the analysis. This indicates that the control theoretic analysis is sufficient to select controller parameters that meet the desired goals, and the need for simulations is reduced.