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students in interesting, meaningful control design activities while keeping costs ■ Simulink®
■ Control System Toolbox™
down has been a significant challenge for our department. As engineering
■ Real-Time Windows Target™
labs have become more sophisticated, equipment costs have risen, mak-
■ Real-Time Workshop®
ing it difficult to provide each student with adequate experimentation time.
We recently introduced a low-cost, portable for students to use on assignments through- because they have used it in their numeri-
laboratory module based on MATLAB®, out the course. Later, I show them how they cal methods course. Few, however, have any
Simulink®, and an aeropendulum (Figure 1). can save time by using the built-in root lo- experience with Simulink. To help the stu-
Students take the device home to conduct cus capabilities of Control System Toolbox. dents learn Simulink, I incrementally build
experiments and complete assignments. Simulink models in class. I save the complete
This hands-on work complements the When they begin Control System Design
model to the Web site for the students to
lecture portion of the course with active, most students are familiar with MATLAB
download.
sensory learning that gets students excited
about control design.
Figure 2. Diagram of the aeropendulum showing the potentiometer, rod, motor, and propeller.
Student Feedback These experiences do not require expen- Dr. Eniko T. Enikov is an associate
Student response to the course and to the sive lab equipment. In fact, we have found professor in Aerospace and Mechani-
hands-on assignments has been very posi- that MATLAB, Simulink and a simple low- cal Engineering at the University of
tive. In a course evaluation, students re- cost device are all that is needed. ■ Arizona. He is the director of the
lum project with my current students to are registered trademarks of The MathWorks, Inc. See
www.mathworks.com/trademarks for a list of additional
gauge their understanding of control de- trademarks. Other product or brand names may be trade-
marks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.