2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Developing Experiments to Teach Control Theory

Presented at Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI) Technical Session 1

Developing Experiments to Teach Control Theory
by
Stephen Wilkerson York College of Pennsylvania
Andrew Gadsden McMaster University
Andrew Lee University of Guelph

This paper presents two Project Based Learning (PBL) control experiments that are low cost and non-proprietary. Moreover, both of these projects can be built by the students for under one hundred dollars in a short amount of time. Nonetheless, the development of these devices was not without difficulties. This is probably why many classes still do not include homemade control experiments or when they do the experiment becomes problematic. This paper provides an outline of two control experimental devices and a discussion of where the difficulties occurred in developing them. Sufficient details are provided herein to allow others to replicate the PBL experiments, minus the problems, and to expand on what is presented in this limited offering. The use of these devices has undergone an evolution over the past three years, and the paper include details of the projects use, benefits, and drawbacks. Finally, the paper provides observations of student learning from several semesters of use with recommendations for the future.

It was observed that developing control laws for a particular system can be confusing for many students. More often than not they don’t know where to start. Not surprisingly, to facilitate a more complete understanding of control theory many classes include some hands-on experiments with various devices. Unfortunately, these experiments often require the learning of new software and hardware like LabView and their products to create the control law. Moreover, the hardware and software requirements, not to mention the expenses, can detract from the purpose originally intended. Not surprisingly, the process of learning new unrelated materials can result in students not fully understanding how to control even the simplest of systems without the use of proprietary equipment and software. Fortunately, most engineering and computer science curriculums include work with microprocessors like the Arduino and programming in C or with MATLAB . This enabled the opportunity to develop some limited experiments for use in classes. This paper presents two experiments that have been continually improved and redesigned over the past several years.

Labview is a product of National Instruments Corp: https://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/labview.html
MATLAB is the trade mark of Mathworks: https://www.mathworks.com/products/MATLAB.html

Authors

Dr. Stephen Andrew Wilkerson, P.E. York College of Pennsylvania [biography]

Stephen Wilkerson (swilkerson@ycp.edu) received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1990 in Mechanical Engineering. His Thesis and initial work was on underwater explosion bubble dynamics and ship and submarine whipping. After graduation he took a position with the US Army where he has been ever since. For the first decade with the Army he worked on notable programs to include the M829A1 and A2 that were first of a kind composite saboted munition. His travels have taken him to Los Alamos where he worked on modeling the transient dynamic attributes of Kinetic Energy munitions during initial launch. Afterwards he was selected for the exchange scientist program and spent a summer working for DASA Aerospace in Wedel, Germany 1993. His initial research also made a major contribution to the M1A1 barrel reshape initiative that began in 1995. Shortly afterwards he was selected for a 1 year appointment to the United States Military Academy West Point where he taught Mathematics. Following these accomplishments he worked on the SADARM fire and forget projectile that was finally used in the second gulf war.
Since that time, circa 2002, his studies have focused on unmanned systems both air and ground. His team deployed a bomb finding robot named the LynchBot to Iraq late in 2004 and then again in 2006 deployed about a dozen more improved LynchBots to Iraq. His team also assisted in the deployment of 84 TACMAV systems in 2005. Around that time he volunteered as a science advisor and worked at the Rapid Equipping Force during the summer of 2005 where he was exposed to a number of unmanned systems technologies. His initial group composed of about 6 S&T grew to nearly 30 between 2003 and 2010 as he transitioned from a Branch head to an acting Division Chief. In 2010-2012 he again was selected to teach Mathematics at the United States Military Academy West Point. Upon returning to ARL's Vehicle Technology Directorate from West Point he has continued his research on unmanned systems under ARL's Campaign for Maneuver as the Associate Director of Special Programs. Throughout his career he has continued to teach at a variety of colleges and universities. For the last 4 years he has been a part time instructor and collaborator with researchers at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (http://me.umbc.edu/directory/). He is currently an Assistant Professor at York College PA.
Dr. Stephen Andrew Gadsden McMaster University [biography]

Dr. S. Andrew Gadsden is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at McMaster University and is Director of the Intelligent and Cognitive Engineering (ICE) Laboratory. His research area includes control and estimation theory, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and cognitive systems. Dr. Gadsden completed his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and Management (Business) and then earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at McMaster in the area of estimation theory with applications to mechatronics and aerospace systems. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher for nearly three years at the Centre for Mechatronics and Hybrid Technology (Hamilton, Ontario). He also worked concurrently as a Project Manager in the pharmaceutical industry (Apotex Inc., Toronto, Ontario). Before joining McMaster University, Dr. Gadsden was an Associate/Assistant Professor at the University of Guelph and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (USA). He worked and continues to work with a number of colleagues in NASA, the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL), US Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE). Dr. Gadsden is an elected Fellow of ASME, is a Senior Member of IEEE, and is a Professional Engineer of Ontario. He is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Dr. Gadsden is a reviewer for a number of ASME and IEEE journals and international conferences.
Mr. Andrew Lee [biography]

Lee has applied his mechanical engineering knowledge and STEM teaching skills as a camp assistant in the Take Flight Robotics program, a summer experience designed to engage and inspire high school interested in STEM fields. In 2015, Lee helped participan

Download paper (1.22 MB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session