2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Dynamic modeling and the development of control systems can be a challenging subject for ECE students. This course often begins with modeling of dynamic mechanical systems, leading to modeling electromechanical systems, namely the DC motor. The DC motor is ubiquitous in control systems laboratory experiments; however, the impact of the later experiments in the semester can diminish as the students design a controller for velocity control once again, even though they are applying new techniques. To provide a wider range of applications for ECE students to implement control system designs on, the Zumo robot platform is being investigated to determine if it is a feasible option as a second system to be utilized within the existing semester course.

Until this study, the ECE students at XX enrolled in the required control systems course have only experienced modeling and implementing control systems for DC motors. In 2019, the control systems faculty shifted from a shared university-owned, high-precision, high-cost system to the low-cost bring-your-own-experiment DC Motor system presented in [XX]. With growing interest in robotics as seen in many recent works, this work aims to provide ECE students with the opportunity to develop an understanding of working with a similar, yet very different system. The students will have to perform a system identification task followed by the design and application of a closed loop controller that commands the robot to drive toward a target in the presence of disturbances.

Through this work-in-progress, it will be determined if the implementation of the Zumo robot within the standard control systems course is within the scope of the course. If it is determined that it is outside of the scope of the standard course, it will be considered for implementation into the advanced control systems elective.