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On the Development of a Portable Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) Trainer

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Conference

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual Conference

Publication Date

July 26, 2021

Start Date

July 26, 2021

End Date

July 19, 2022

Conference Session

Instrumentation Division Technical Session

Tagged Division

Instrumentation

Page Count

19

DOI

10.18260/1-2--37536

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/37536

Download Count

442

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Paper Authors

biography

Bradley Lane Kicklighter University of Southern Indiana Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-2012-9317

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Brad holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (1989) and an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University (2001).

His past work experience includes eleven years at Delphi (formerly Delco Electronics) as an Advanced Project Engineer, eleven years at Whirlpool Corporation as a Lead Engineer/Solution Architect, and three years at Ivy Tech Community College as an Instructor/Program Chair of Pre-Engineering. Since 2015, he has been employed at the University of Southern Indiana as an Assistant Professor of Manufacturing Engineering Technology.

He holds three patents, has served as an IEEE section officer since 2004, and has been a Licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Indiana since 2005.

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Abstract

In today’s reality where sharing equipment between students is a health concern, university courses may be forced to go fully online with short notice, and students may have to quarantine for periods of time, there is a need for a portable Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) trainer that can be assigned to a student for the semester. The portable PLC trainer allows students to have a satisfactory laboratory experience across various modes of instructional delivery.

PLCs are used to automate industrial equipment and processes and are frequently used in laboratory activities in an automation course. At a minimum, a portable PLC trainer should be compact, have protection for the trainer components, provide user interface input and output devices, and the PLC programming software should be available for students to install on their own personal computers.

This paper presents the design and development of a portable PLC trainer including the requirements for the trainer, component selection rationale, and fabrication methods. Assessment of course learning outcomes through laboratory activities during the first semester of PLC trainer usage is presented. The PLC trainer developed has momentary pushbuttons, indicator lamps, potentiometers, a voltmeter, and sufficient digital and analog inputs and outputs for input/output devices on the trainer as well as external devices connected to the trainer.

Kicklighter, B. L. (2021, July), On the Development of a Portable Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) Trainer Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37536

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