Design and Development of Robust Portable Trainers Used in PLC and Pneumatic Laboratories

Ali Alavizadeh; Maged Mikhail

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: Instrumentation Division Technical Session 2
Tagged Division: Instrumentation
Page Count: 8
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--34391
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/34391
Download Count: 455

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Paper Authors

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Ali Alavizadeh Purdue University Northwest

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Dr. Ali Alavizadeh is an Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering Technology at Purdue University Northwest (Hammond, IN). Previously, he taught at Purdue University Fort Wayne (Fort Wayne, Indiana), The George Washington University (Washington, DC), and Morehead State University (Morehead, KY) in the areas of Industrial Engineering Technology, and Engineering Management and Systems Engineering. His industrial experiences include software engineering, systems engineering and analysis, and production optimization for private, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations. His research interests include numerical methods in solid and fluid mechanics, nonlinear dynamics, and complex systems modeling and simulation.

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Maged Mikhail Purdue University Northwest

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Dr. Maged B.Mikhail, Assistant Professor, Mechatronics Engineering Technology Ph.D., Electrical Engineering,
Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee, August 2013. Dissertation title: ”Development
of Integrated Decision Fusion Software System For Aircraft Structural Health Monitoring” M.S., Electrical
Engineering, Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee, May 2009. Thesis title: ”Development
of Software System for Control and Coordination of Tasks among Mobile Robot and Robotic Arm.” B.S.,
Electrical Engineering University of El Mina Cairo, Egypt, May 2001.

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Abstract

The lab activities for two undergraduate courses in fluid power and Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) programming share similar activities as far as basic programming for PLCs and actuating pneumatic cylinders and motors. The fluid power course includes discussions and lab activities on pneumatics. Currently, students use 4 trainers that are bound to be used in lab due to their sizes. With no sitting space, it is desirable to use portable desktop trainers which can be used in any classroom. The same issue exists with regards to PLC course. Previously, the authors had proposed two separate portable desktop units for these lab activities with their corresponding lab activities. Currently, there are 21 PLC trainers and a prototype is already being built for the fluid power lab. Further discussion and consideration resulted in identifying some lab activities that can be shared if there were one set of trainers that cater to the need of both courses.

This paper discusses the design and development of an integrated trainer based on the existing trainers. The discussion includes design steps, and material and component selection and specification. A series of lab activities will be proposed which will be used in teaching the lab section of the two undergraduate courses in Mechanical Engineering Technology and Mechatronics Engineering Technology. The ultimate goal of this project, which will be a secondary study, is to seek students input on the use of these trainers in teaching the lab activities.

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Alavizadeh, A., & Mikhail, M. (2020, June), Design and Development of Robust Portable Trainers Used in PLC and Pneumatic Laboratories Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34391