- Email: [email protected]
Modern education in control engineering
IFAC MCPL 2007 The 4th International Federation of Automatic Control Conference on Management and Control of Production and Logistics September 27-30, Sibiu - Romania
Modern education in control engineering Petr Husek Department of Control Engineering Faculty of Electrical Engineering Czech Technical University in Prague Technicka 2, Prague Czech Republic e-mail: [email protected] Extended Abstract This contribution presents the internet based control engineering educational system used in Czech Technical University in Prague. The system consists of three basic parts. The first one is the internet textbook that makes it possible to explain new knowledge to the user in very friendly and comprehensive manner. Many figures, hyperlinks and both theoretical and practical examples from different areas (mechanics, electrical engineering, hydraulics, thermodynamics) improve readability of the textbook. Especially the hyperlinks enable understanding the subject in more general and wide context. The aim of the textbook is to introduce the backgrounds of modeling and control of dynamic systems for students in bachelor program. Since in control engineering there are many associations and mutual relations the system of hyperlinks is very suitable to explain them. Many files can be downloaded including executable in Matlab to demonstrate the theoretical knowledge by experimental simulations. The students can change parameters or other conditions of the simulated system and thereby take a part in the learning process in an active manner. The second part of the system is represented by the Matlab web server (MWS) which allows running all the examples and applications in the textbook from any point in the internet network. Program package Matlab contains a lot of procedures and routines used in control engineering. Moreover a simple program language included in this environment enables compiling and running new algorithms and applications created by the user. In internet network configuration the user sends his data to the server in HTML form and the server runs the application and returns results as HTML page (including figures). Thanks to the connection of the textbook with MWS anybody can validate the theoretical results on a practical application. The main advantage of MWS is the possibility of executing control experiments on models of real plants located in laboratory for automatic control. At present highly nonlinear and unstable model of levitation of a pot in air stream is available for remote control. The input to the model is voltage of a ventilator which is placed at the bottom of the tube which top end is opened. The air stream produced by the ventilator elevates a cup. The vertical position of the cup measured by a laser sensor represents the output variable. The model is controlled by Allen-Bradley PLC-5 which can use both PID and logical controller. A PC is also connected to store data from the automata and to visualize data using web pages. This computer is also equipped by Matlab environment and Real Time toolbox to be able to implement more sophisticated control algorithms. The data are transferred to MySQL database which is used by PHP program for Apache web server. All the data and the current status of the model are refreshed and displayed every 500ms. Whole model is scanned by a web camera. The reservation system is available to make it possible to access the model by more students. The students can create their own procedures or they can download the applications prepared by the teacher. The third main part of the system is an e-learning module that makes it possible to create, execute and check the results of an electronic test. This is very important for the students and all who want to check understanding of the knowledge acquired from the textbook. Different 907
kinds of answers are possible: a number (the tolerance interval can be specified), a lis of terms, yes/no answer and arbitrary string of characters. Every answer is recorded so that the user can stop and continue the test after. Student identification data is loaded from the information system. All three parts connected each other create a complete educational tool for knowledge gaining, its validation on both theoretical and practical examples and applications and testing its understanding. Very important part of the presented system is a user friendly environment for those who want to add new pages or chapters into internet textbook or make some corrections there. This tool is again available via web interface. The most used component of the publishing tool is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor of HTML pages. Apart from writing a text it allows text and heading highlighting, creating a numbered or unnumbered list or inserting figures or hyperlinks using a simple menu system. The created HTML pages are thereafter checked and corrected according to the HTML standard. Any internet based educational tool has to be equipped by an administration system that ensures distributing the access rights to different parts of the textbook according to a type of the user. The system uses the modern program tools as the PHP language for generating the textbook code, MySQL for user administration and all database operations (e.g. electronic test evaluation and its result storing) or system CSS2 for graphical appearance arrangement. The whole system is created as a support for basic education in control engineering but its principles can be used in any other educational area. The whole textbook has been originally made in Czech language (http:\dce.felk.cvut.cz\sari) and it has been translated into English. Acknowledgements This work has been supported by the project INGO 1P2007LA297, Research Program MSM6840770038 (sponsored by the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic), the project 1H-PK/22 (sponsored by Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic) and the project GACR 102/05/0903 (sponsored by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic).
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Modern education in control engineering Petr Husek Department of Control Engineering Faculty of Electrical Engineering Czech Technical University in Prague Technicka 2, Prague Czech Republic e-mail: [email protected] Extended Abstract This contribution presents the internet based control engineering educational system used in Czech Technical University in Prague. The system consists of three basic parts. The first one is the internet textbook that makes it possible to explain new knowledge to the user in very friendly and comprehensive manner. Many figures, hyperlinks and both theoretical and practical examples from different areas (mechanics, electrical engineering, hydraulics, thermodynamics) improve readability of the textbook. Especially the hyperlinks enable understanding the subject in more general and wide context. The aim of the textbook is to introduce the backgrounds of modeling and control of dynamic systems for students in bachelor program. Since in control engineering there are many associations and mutual relations the system of hyperlinks is very suitable to explain them. Many files can be downloaded including executable in Matlab to demonstrate the theoretical knowledge by experimental simulations. The students can change parameters or other conditions of the simulated system and thereby take a part in the learning process in an active manner. The second part of the system is represented by the Matlab web server (MWS) which allows running all the examples and applications in the textbook from any point in the internet network. Program package Matlab contains a lot of procedures and routines used in control engineering. Moreover a simple program language included in this environment enables compiling and running new algorithms and applications created by the user. In internet network configuration the user sends his data to the server in HTML form and the server runs the application and returns results as HTML page (including figures). Thanks to the connection of the textbook with MWS anybody can validate the theoretical results on a practical application. The main advantage of MWS is the possibility of executing control experiments on models of real plants located in laboratory for automatic control. At present highly nonlinear and unstable model of levitation of a pot in air stream is available for remote control. The input to the model is voltage of a ventilator which is placed at the bottom of the tube which top end is opened. The air stream produced by the ventilator elevates a cup. The vertical position of the cup measured by a laser sensor represents the output variable. The model is controlled by Allen-Bradley PLC-5 which can use both PID and logical controller. A PC is also connected to store data from the automata and to visualize data using web pages. This computer is also equipped by Matlab environment and Real Time toolbox to be able to implement more sophisticated control algorithms. The data are transferred to MySQL database which is used by PHP program for Apache web server. All the data and the current status of the model are refreshed and displayed every 500ms. Whole model is scanned by a web camera. The reservation system is available to make it possible to access the model by more students. The students can create their own procedures or they can download the applications prepared by the teacher. The third main part of the system is an e-learning module that makes it possible to create, execute and check the results of an electronic test. This is very important for the students and all who want to check understanding of the knowledge acquired from the textbook. Different 907
kinds of answers are possible: a number (the tolerance interval can be specified), a lis of terms, yes/no answer and arbitrary string of characters. Every answer is recorded so that the user can stop and continue the test after. Student identification data is loaded from the information system. All three parts connected each other create a complete educational tool for knowledge gaining, its validation on both theoretical and practical examples and applications and testing its understanding. Very important part of the presented system is a user friendly environment for those who want to add new pages or chapters into internet textbook or make some corrections there. This tool is again available via web interface. The most used component of the publishing tool is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor of HTML pages. Apart from writing a text it allows text and heading highlighting, creating a numbered or unnumbered list or inserting figures or hyperlinks using a simple menu system. The created HTML pages are thereafter checked and corrected according to the HTML standard. Any internet based educational tool has to be equipped by an administration system that ensures distributing the access rights to different parts of the textbook according to a type of the user. The system uses the modern program tools as the PHP language for generating the textbook code, MySQL for user administration and all database operations (e.g. electronic test evaluation and its result storing) or system CSS2 for graphical appearance arrangement. The whole system is created as a support for basic education in control engineering but its principles can be used in any other educational area. The whole textbook has been originally made in Czech language (http:\dce.felk.cvut.cz\sari) and it has been translated into English. Acknowledgements This work has been supported by the project INGO 1P2007LA297, Research Program MSM6840770038 (sponsored by the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic), the project 1H-PK/22 (sponsored by Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic) and the project GACR 102/05/0903 (sponsored by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic).
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