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Enhancing Mechatronics Education using Model-Based Techniques and Mathworks Tools

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Conference

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Vancouver, BC

Publication Date

June 26, 2011

Start Date

June 26, 2011

End Date

June 29, 2011

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education

Tagged Division

Electrical and Computer

Page Count

16

Page Numbers

22.619.1 - 22.619.16

DOI

10.18260/1-2--17900

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/17900

Download Count

780

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Paper Authors

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Farzad Pourboghrat Southern Illinois University

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Farzad Pourboghrat received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Iowa in 1984. He has since been with the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (SIUC) where he is currently a Professor and director of the Embedded Control Systems (ECS) Lab. He is a senior member of IEEE. His research interests include control theory, real-time embedded control, mechatronics, and distributed robotic systems.

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Narayanan Ramachandran Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

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Narayanan Ramachandran received his Bachelors degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Bangalore University in 2004 and was awarded a Masters of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale in 2010.
He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and is a Research Assistant at Embedded Control Systems Laboratory. His main areas of research includes power electronics and control systems.

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Aishwarya Vasu Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

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Aishwarya Vasu received her Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Anna University, Chennai, India in 2006. She received her Master of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. She is currently a Ph.D. student at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. She is a Research assistant at Embedded Controls and Systems Laboratory at SIUC. She is also a Research assistant at Materials Technology Center, SIUC.

Her research interests include real time programming of control systems and real time operating/Embedded Systems.

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Arjun Shekar Sadahalli Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

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Arjun Shekar Sadahalli is a graduate student currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He received his Bachelors degree in Electronics and Communication from Visveswaraiah Technological University in 2004 and his Masters of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale in 2009. He works as a Research Assistant in Embedded Control Systems Laboratory with control systems and navigation as his primary area of research.

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Prashanthi Banala Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

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She received Bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in 2008. She is currently pursing Master's in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and working as Research Assistant in Embedded Control System Laboratory at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Her main research interests are control systems and distributed system design.

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Giampiero Campa MathWorks

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Giampiero Campa, was born in Taranto, Italy. He received both is M.S. degree in Control Engineering (1996) and his Ph.D. degree in Robotics and Automation (2000), from the University of Pisa, Italy. He has also worked at the Industrial Control Centre, Strathclyde University, U.K., (1995) and at the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA (1999). From 2000 to 2008, he has served as faculty in the Flight Control Group at the Department of Aerospace Engineering, West Virginia University. His research at WVU involved system identification, sensor fusion, fault tolerance, machine vision, and adaptive and nonlinear control, especially applied to UAVs. During his stay at WVU Dr. Campa has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles in international journals, about 60 research papers for international conferences, and a couple of book chapters. He has joined the MathWorks in 2009, where he currently works as a Technical Evangelist for the U.S. west coast area.

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Abstract

Enhancing Mechatronics Education using Model-Based Techniques and Mathworks ToolsThis paper describes our current efforts toward developing lecture materials, demo tools, andlaboratory modules for enhancing an existing non-required course in Embedded Control andMechatronics to increase the enrollment in the course and to improve students’ learning of thesubject. Model-based techniques are considered for teaching the course using Matlab, Simulink,and a variety of other Mathworks toolboxes.It has been observed that presenting examples in teaching and offering hands-on laboratoryexercises improve the students’ learning experience, especially in technical subjects. However,the development and implementation of effective examples and laboratory experiments are bothtime-consuming and expensive. Model-based techniques using Matlab, Simulink, and otherMathworks toolboxes provide a systematic and flexible approach to teaching Mechatronicsystems that can be achieved within constrained university budgets.Lecture materials were revised to include a number of webinars to introduce the use of variousMathworks toolboxes for modeling and automated control design. Example models weredeveloped using Simscape and Simulink for demos within lectures, including a dc motor, aninverted pendulum, a segway, and a differential-drive mobile robot. Several electro-mechanicalsystems were also set up for lab experiments, including a dc motor speed control system, aninverted pendulum balancer, a flexible beam vibration controller, and an acoustic levitationsystem. A number of these tools were developed and used in an exploratory Model-BasedControl Design course during summer 2010 with seven graduate students enrolled in the course.The processes for modeling, control design, and implementation using an embeddedmicrocontroller is presented for the speed control of a dc motor, as a typical example. It wasobserved that using model-based approach with Mathworks tools all students became moreengaged in the course and became more confident with the processes involved in the design andimplementation of embedded control systems.Additional demo tools and modules are now being developed and refined for teaching theexisting Embedded Control and Mechatronics course using model-based approach withMathworks tools. A GUI is being developed to facilitate the automatic programming of anembedded microcontroller for control implementation. Improvements in the technical knowledgeof the students and their confidence in carrying out laboratory experiments throughout the coursewill be used as the primary indicator to assess the effectiveness of these new teaching tools.

Pourboghrat, F., & Ramachandran, N., & Vasu, A., & Sadahalli, A. S., & Banala, P., & Campa, G. (2011, June), Enhancing Mechatronics Education using Model-Based Techniques and Mathworks Tools Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC. 10.18260/1-2--17900

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