Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Session 1647

Select MATLAB commands used in Teaching Applied Automatic Controls

G.V. Narayanan

University Of Toledo Email: nara@utoledo.edu

The teaching of applied automatic controls for students in the engineering technology program is always a challenge in terms of imparting the mathematical knowledge and understanding of the control analysis and design. In this paper, the reasons behind this challenge are identified, and also, the use of select MATLAB commands in teaching applied automatic controls course is emphasized. Of the several useful commands available in MATLAB, only a few important commands are taught to enhance the understanding of the subject. The select MATLAB commands that are taught in the applied controls course are identified in this paper. In addition, this paper gives a sample second order system transfer system that is used to show and to explain the control design concepts in the class. The effect on the students understanding of the subject on such a teaching using these MATLAB commands is also discussed in this paper.

Introduction

In this paper, the subject of MATLAB commands pertaining to the control analysis and design is discussed. Several texts1,2,3 exist for teaching controls and use of MATLAB in controls2,3. The teaching of the use of these select MATLAB commands in conjunction with the teaching of the control analysis and design is undertaken in the ‘Applied Automatic Controls’ course offered to the Engineering Technology (ET) students at the University of Toledo, Toledo. Due to the limitation of paper space, the discussion in this paper will be limited to select MATLAB4,5,6,7 commands, and as to how it helps in imparting the mathematical analysis and understanding of the control analysis and design.

There exist several difficulties both for students in terms of understanding the controls subject and for the instructor in imparting the mathematical knowledge required in controls to make students understand the subject within a semester time-frame. The 30 hour time-frame is small for the instructor to make the ET students understand and digest the subject materials in order to make them proficient in this subject. Such time-frame difficulty cannot be avoided even if the course teaching time is extended since this course is analytic-intensive and numerical in terms of the controls analysis and design. With no computational and software aids available, all students will get bogged down with many intermediate calculations needed while generating time-history and frequency domain Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Narayanan, G. (2005, June), Select Matlab Commands Used In Teaching Applied Automatic Controls Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--15399