A set of computer aided automatic control experiments for undergraduate students

In a typical control systems course, students are expected to develop the notion of open loop and closed loop first. Under the feedback, traditional control theory offers many elegant solutions to control problems yet teaching those concepts experimentally is an art. This article describes how the notion of feedback control could be developed by utilizing a computer aided experimental setup available at the laboratories of TOBB University of Economics and Technology. A DC motor control system is considered and step by step development of the understanding of feedback control is explained. Didactic aspect is taken care of throughout the manuscript and extensions to research are emphasized. (c) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 21: 300312, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.20472