Mecatronica 12 (2002) 371381

La enseanza del diseo del sistema de control a travs de la Mecatrnica: perspectivas acadmicas e industriales
Kevin Craig
a

a,* b

, Fred Stol
Departamento de Ingeniera Mecnica, Ingeniera Aeronutica y Mecnica, Instituto Politcnico Rensselaer y TCG, Inc., Troy, Nueva York12180, EE.UU. bXerox Ingeniera Mecnica Laboratorio de Ciencias y TCG, Inc., EE.UU. Resumen

El enfoque actual para el diseo del sistema de control de la enseanza como un curso independiente o finales en el plan de estudios, se habla poco de hardware, implementacin, o integracin a travs del diseo, es Lnea en la preparacin de los estudiantes para la prctica de la ingeniera. Control Los sistemas deben estar integrados en el diseo desde el principio y no ser simplemente despus de pensamiento add-ons. Sobre la base de los autores Mecatrnica extensas experiencia docente a la universidad estudiantes e ingenieros profesionales, un enfoque integrado de Mecatrnica con los controles de enseanza Se propone. Este enfoque serio se ocupar de las deficiencias de a en las habilidades actuales de los profesionales que trabajan, como se observa por los autores en la enseanza profesional de la ingeniera talleres. Estas deficiencias de son el resultado directo de cmo ensear a los controles y en la actualidad relacionada. temas. "2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. Todos los derechos reservados.

1. Introduccin

En este trabajo se aborda el estado actual de la educacin del sistema de control, tanto desde el acadmico y el punto de vista industrial. Los autores son profesionales de la ingeniera con amplia experiencia tanto en la prctica de control de ingeniera de sistemas y la formacin de ingenieros, ambos estudiantes universitarios y profesionales que trabajan, en este momento alcanzar ELD. El control es una tecnologa increble que acta para mejorar el desempeo el rendimiento de un gran rango de sistemas y productos tecnolgicos avanzados.
*

Autor correspondiente. E-mail: craigk@rpi.edu (K. Craig).

0957-4158/02/$ - see front matter 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. Todos los derechos reservados PII: S 0 9 5 7 - 4 1 5 8 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 7 6 - 9

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Muchos casos, la retroalimentacin es una tecnologa que permite ya que muchos sistemas no pueden funcionar sin ella. Sin embargo, uno nunca sabra que, al observar la falta de nfasis en el tema en los currculos de pregrado de ingeniera tpica o ver cmo en la industria, la prctica del diseo del sistema de control est reservada para unos pocos especialistas en el ELD . Hay una necesidad en el mundo acadmico y en la industria para que la capacidad de disear y implementar un sistema de control digital, como una parte integral de un diseo y no como un pensamiento post-add-on, una herramienta esencial en la caja de todos los ingenieros. Aunque sin duda hay una necesidad de expertos en el control y las tcnicas avanzadas de control, mayor control diseos utilizados en la industria hoy en da son clsicos de la entrada nica / sola salida (SISO), lineal invariante en el tiempo (LTI) el tipo, y los ingenieros necesitan saber cmo disear y aplicar estos sistemas bsicos.

La necesidad de educacin en el sistema de control de la Mecatrnica sigue las tendencias modernas industriales. Muchas empresas estn sustituyendo a los componentes mecnicos convencionales y los complejos mecanismos con los sistemas mecatrnicos en sus productos. Sistemas mecatrnicos lograr una mayor precisin, una respuesta ms rpida, menor tamao, y una gran cantidad de caractersticas adicionales del cliente a travs de la aplicacin de los controles y la electrnica. Un diseo de sistema mecatrnico slo ser electrnico costo? Si el aspecto de control est diseado desde el principio. Agregar controles en el ltimo momento slo se sumar el costo, todo el coste aadido Bene ct de controles, como el aflojamiento de las tolerancias y la simplificacin de la trayectoria de accionamiento, no se realizar. As, el diseo del sistema de control es por necesidad una parte integral de una educacin en Mecatrnica y la Mecatrnica debe ser una parte integral de la educacin en ingeniera mecnica, si el estudiante es el de obtener una posicin en la industria moderna. Debe tenerse en cuenta que los sistemas de control suelen ser enseada como parte del plan de estudios de Ingeniera Elctrica. Si una vez ms, consideramos modernas tendencias de la industria, la necesidad de los controles en el sector de la electrnica est perdiendo importancia. Muchas compaas en la industria de la electrnica moderna se ocupan del diseo de la comunicacin y productos de informtica. Aunque la tecnologa de los controles y el anlisis de sistemas pueden ser tiles para tales diseos, no es tanto una necesidad que para los diseos de Mecatrnica. El estudiante de ingeniera elctrica puede ND A posicin en la industria electrnica sin una habilidad en los controles. Aunque esto puede no ser el estado deseado, ciertamente no es tan crtico como lo es para el ingeniero mecnico moderno.

El esquema del documento es como sigue. El ELD de la Mecatrnica, y la funcin de control en este ELD , es de nido, junto con las habilidades esenciales que necesitan todos los ingenieros de la Mecatrnica. El programa de Mecatrnica en el Rensselear, uno de los principales programas de pregrado de Mecatrnica en los EE.UU., se describe. Los autores tambin tienen una amplia experiencia en la formacin de los profesionales que trabajan en el ELD de la Mecatrnica y la empresa TCG, creado para ofrecer personalizada, la formacin en Mecatrnica Handson, se discute. La situacin actual en la universidad controla la educacin y la lo que la universidad controla la educacin debe ser, como se ve por los autores, se presenta el prximo. La formacin de ingenieros profesionales en la ELD de la Mecatrnica es necesario realizar ajustes, un enfoque de tipo universitario al fracaso. Lo que hace profesional la formacin en este ELD de xito Mecatrnica se discute. Por ltimo, los autores proponen que los controles se enseaban como una parte integral de la Mecatrnica, y no como estn independientes del curso. De Ciencias en los conocimientos actuales de los profesionales que trabajan, como se observa en la enseanza de talleres profesionales de ingeniera, se presentan. Estos son el resultado directo de la forma en que actualmente ensean los controles y otros temas relacionados. Los controles de la enseanza como un curso independiente, con mayor nfasis en las matemticas y poco nfasis en la prctica y la integracin no estn dando buenos resultados. El tema de los controles es increblemente sutil y complejo tanto en la teora y la prctica y la enseanza de un enfoque integrado para el diseo ser un paso para remediar estas deficiencias Corporativa .

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1.1.1. Que es la mecatrnica? Mecatrnica es la combinacin sinrgica de la ingeniera mecnica, electrnica, sistemas de control, y las computadoras. El elemento clave en la Mecatrnica es la integracin de estas reas a travs del proceso de diseo (fig. 1). La caracterstica esencial de un ingeniero de la Mecatrnica y la clave del xito en la Mecatrnica es un equilibrio entre dos conjuntos de habilidades: modelado / anlisis de las capacidades y la experimentacin / hardware habilidades de implementacin. La sinergia y la integracin en el diseo de establecer un sistema mecatrnico, aparte de un sistema tradicional y multidisciplinario. Los ingenieros se espera que el diseo con la sinergia y la integracin y los profesores deben ensear el diseo actual en consecuencia.

Fig. 1. Mecatrnica: la sinergia y la integracin a travs del diseo

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1,2. Mecatrnica en el IPC? Rensselaer de la nacin universidad tecnolgica primera fue fundada en 1824. Universidad no religiosa, privado mixto, es el hogar de cinco escuelas de Arquitectura, Ingeniera, Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales, Lally School of Management y Tecnologa y la Ciencia, as como la facultad interdisciplinario de Tecnologa de la Informacin. Rensselaer cuenta con ms de 9600 estudiantes de pregrado, estudiantes de posgrado, y profesionales que trabajan en escuelas que estn en Troy, Nueva York y Hartford, CT, ya travs de la enseanza a distancia de oportunidades en todo el mundo. Con 2600 estudiantes, la Escuela de Rensselaer de Ingeniera ofrece uno de los programas de ingeniera ms grandes de pregrado de cualquier universidad privada en el pas. En los ltimos aos Rensselaer ha sido constantemente clasificada entre las 20 mejores universidades de ingeniera de enseanza e investigacin en los EE.UU...

Enseanza de la ingeniera de pregrado en Rensselaer consta de dos fases: un plan de estudios bsico interdisciplinario durante los dos primeros aos, con la instruccin de los diversos departamentos, seguido por el plan de estudios disciplinarias aplicadas por un departamento individual. El Departamento de Ingeniera Mecnica, Aeronutica y Mecnica del Rensselaer ofrece licenciaturas, maestras y doctorados en las tres disciplinas representadas en el nombre. Los premios del departamento de ms de 200 de licenciatura, maestra 80 y 20 grados de doctorado por ao, la mayor parte de los cuales son los grados de ingeniera mecnica

En el departamento, existen actualmente dos cursos electivos de alto en el campo de la Mecatrnica, que tambin estn abiertos a estudiantes de posgrado: Mecatrnica, que se ofrecen en el semestre de otoo, y Diseo de sistema mecatrnico, ofrecindoles euros en el semestre de primavera. En ambos cursos, se hace hincapi en el equilibrio entre el conocimiento fsico y trmites matemticas. Las principales reas de estudio contempladas en los dos cursos son los siguientes: 1. Sistema mecatrnico principios de diseo. 2. Modelado, anlisis y control de la dinmica de sistemas fsicos. 3. La seleccin y la interconexin de sensores, actuadores ymicrocontroladores. 4. Analgica y electrnica digital de control 5. Programacin en tiempo real para el control.

Mecatrnica cubre los aspectos fundamentales en estas reas a travs de conferencias integrados y ejercicios de laboratorio, mientras que el diseo del sistema mecatrnico se centra en la aplicacin y extensin de los fundamentos a travs de un diseo, construccin, y la experiencia de prueba. A lo largo de la cobertura, la atencin se mantiene sobre el papel de las principales reas de mecatrnica de estudio en el proceso de diseo y de cmo estas reas clave estn integradas en un diseo de sistemas mecatrnicos con xito.

En la mecatrnica, el equilibrio es fundamental. La caracterstica esencial de un ingeniero de la mecatrnica y la clave del xito en la mecatrnica es un equilibrio entre dos conjuntos de habilidades: 1. El diseo de modelado (fsico y matemtico), el anlisis (de forma cerrada y simulacin numrica), y el control (analgico y digital) de la dinmica de sistemas fsicos. 2. La validacin experimental de modelos y anlisis (para la simulacin de computadora sin la verificacin experimental es el mejor de los cuestionables, y en el peor intil), y una comprensin de las cuestiones clave en la aplicacin de hardware de los diseos.

K. Craig, F. Stolfi / Mecatrnica 12 (2002) 371381 375 Fig. 2. Sistema dinmico proceso de investigacin.

Fig. 2 muestra un diagrama del procedimiento de una investigacin sistema dinmico que hace hincapi en este equilibrio. Aqu, el sistema fsico puede ser un dispositivo real o sistema que se necesita para entender y posiblemente mejorar, o puede representar un concepto siendo evaluado en el proceso de diseo. Los ingenieros ya no pueden evaluar cada concepto de diseo de construccin y prueba, sino que est consumiendo demasiado costoso y el tiempo. Ellos deben confiar en el modelado y anlisis de hardware y la experiencia previa para evaluar cada concepto de diseo con el objetivo de la construccin de prototipos nica opcin.

Este diagrama sirve como una gua para el estudio de los diferentes sistemas de equipo mecatrnico en los cursos que se imparten en Rensselaer. Cuando los estudiantes realizar una investigacin completa del sistema dinmico de un sistema mecatrnico, se desarrollan modelos / anlisis de las capacidades y obtienen el conocimiento y la experiencia con una gran variedad de sensores analgicos y digitales , actuadores que ser indispensable en el diseo mecatrnico para los ingenieros en los prximos aos. 1.3. Qu es el TCG? TCG es una empresa fundada por la universidad y la industria de los educadores en el campo de la mecatrnica, que con un equipo de expertos multidisciplinarios de ingeniera, se puede equipar a los ingenieros de la industria con las herramientas de ingeniera ms avanzadas y mtodos para resolver problemas tcnicos en el campo de la mecatrnica. Sinergia, la integracin a travs del diseo, y el equilibrio entre la teora / anlisis y la prctica / aplicacin se destacan como las claves del xito. TCG ofrece integrados y personalizados, orientados a los resultados, las manos, en ingeniera de solucin de problemas de capacitacin y consultora diseados para satisfacer las prioridades especficas de la compaa. Realizada de manera dinmica, adaptado al cliente, las manos, en 25 da talleres de desarrollo profesional en mecatrnica hasta por 20 ingenieros derecho al sitio empresarial destacando:

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Integration of mechanical engineering, controls, electronics, and computers from concept to design to implementation. Balance between modelling/analysis/control design and experimental validation hardware implementation of designs. Latest computer software analysis and design tools, e.g., MatLab, LabVIEW, Electronics Workbench, Working Model, DADS, Analogy. Latest hardware for measurement and control, e.g., SigLab, dSpace, Microchips. Real-world examples emphasizing real-time applications. TCG customers include: Xerox. US Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ. Pitney Bowes, Production Mail Division, Danbury, CT. Dana Corporation, Technology Resource Park, Ottawa Lakes, MI. Procter and Gamble, Cincinnati, OH. American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Professional Development Program. NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA. NASA Kennedy Space Flight Center, Coco Beach, FL. 2. Teaching controls 2.1. University perspective The current situation is that control is taught as one course, usually late in the curriculum, and often too late to be useful in any senior-level design courses. It is taught with major emphasis on mathematics and less on design and practice. There is little discussion of hardware implementation. Often, as is the current trend, there is no modelling/analysis course preceding the control course. The controls course must cover modelling, analysis, and control system design for dynamic systems all in one three- or four-credit course. This is an impossible task and does little to prepare students for their engineering careers where they will be expected to design and implement control systems as integral parts of their overall design. If anything, it reinforces the idea that control system design is for specialists and that control systems can be added as an afterthought to a design. Nothing could be farther from the truth! So how should control be taught? What are the essential elements that need to be taught in this most essential eld? Control system design is not a narrowly specialized mathematical exercise, but is a widely applied technology with close connections to, and important impacts on, mechatronic system design. A controls course should emphasize breadth, practicality, and concentration on fundamental principles and be characterized by: A balanced presentation of the mathematical and physical aspects of control system design. Emphasis on time-tested approaches useful now and in the future in mechatronic system design.

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A persistent eort to relate specialized topics to their proper role in mechatronic system design. Use of realistic application examples to develop hardware familiarity and an appreciation of the distinction between physical models, mathematical models, and real equipment, and to demonstrate the practical relevance of the methods presented. The intelligent design and use of control systems requires that one have: Knowledge of the basic modes of control that have been devised and the characteristic performance features of each. This allows one to generate one or more design concepts that have potential for success. Familiarity with available hardware so that commercially available components to implement the design concepts can be selected. Competence in modelling of physical systems with suitable equations, using judicious assumptions. Facility in the use of analytical, simulation, and experimental techniques for determination of system response and suggesting design changes. There are several additional features that need to be addressed: Nonlinear and time-varying aspects of control systems, both intentional and parasitic, are considered an integral part of mechatronic system design and should be studied. Parasitic eects present in real systems, such as noise, friction, backlash, saturation, hysteresis, unmodeled resonances, limit stops, and time delay, should also be discussed. Modern control theory (i.e., state-space control system design) is a suitable subject for advanced courses and research in the control eld, and a few very signicant applications have been made. However, the vast majority of practical control system designs are satisfactorily worked out using classical analytical methods (i.e., root-locus and frequency-response control system design methods) augmented by computer simulation and experimental development. The concentration should therefore be on classical control design methods, with state-space control design methods covered in less depth. In mechatronic system design, the use of digital computers as components (generally controllers) is widespread. Both continuous and digital control system design techniques should therefore be given thorough treatment. Computer-aided design tools are indispensable in mechatronic system design and should therefore be used throughout a course. To use computer tools eectively, the engineer must understand the basics of the method being used so that the results from the computer can be evaluated and checked for reasonableness by independent analysis. The course should strive for a balance between analytical techniques and numerical simulations as a way to achieve an optimum design. A control course should develop in the engineer insight into the problems of control and intuition about methods to solve them, emphasizing design in parallel with analysis techniques, showing the unity among several individual design techniques, and synthesizing them into a toolbox of problem-solving methods. The challenges to the engineer are many:

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Design as well as analysis techniques need to be mastered. Control is an active eld of research and hence there is a steady inux of new concepts, ideas, and techniques that an engineer needs to evaluate for potential applications. Control is an interdisciplinary eld that requires an interdisciplinary background. The mechatronics engineer must meet these challenges head on, as all engineers should be able to design and implement a control system as part of a mechatronic design. Control is not just for the experts! 2.2. Industrial perspective The authors, as part of TCG, have conducted several very highly regarded professional development courses in mechatronics that contained a substantial amount of control theory. These courses were targeted and specically developed for a particular company and its engineers and typically lasted ve days. Teaching control systems to mechatronics practicing engineers, what has been called ``Professional Development Courses'', is dierent from teaching undergraduate and graduate students in two important aspects. First, the educational and practical background of the engineers in the course varies considerably. Many began working as mechanical or electrical engineers and have started mechatronic training or wish to start mechatronic training because of an emphasis in their companies to adopt modern mechatronic principles in their designs. Others have attended formal mechatronic classes and are now attending a professional development course because their knowledge has substantially eroded from disuse. Specifying a prerequisite knowledge for these engineers to take the course also makes little sense. Often a practicing engineer has acquired a substantial working knowledge of mechatronics and control systems through self-study and developing products. He may also be unaware of the depths of his knowledge. Further, an engineer who has received formal education in mechatronics and control systems and not used it in his work may be unaware of how much he has forgotten. The second major dierence between a practicing engineer taking a professional development course and an undergraduate or graduate student in a university concerns motivation. Clearly, the practicing engineer cannot be motivated by grades. Subtler than this, the practicing engineer will not be convinced that the course material will be useful in his future work simply by telling him so. He will often have a sense of the knowledge that he needs to do his job even if the nature of his work is changing substantially. He or she will be much less inclined to believe that the instructor is more knowledgeable than them in understanding their professional needs. This sense of what they feel they need to learn often manifests itself in a reluctance to listen to the instructor and is interpreted as a lack of motivation. In fact, if the instructor is able to tie his material to the needs of the practicing engineer, they can become very highly motivated and extremely attentive. These two aspects of professional development courses, namely the wide variety of backgrounds and the need to motivate based on the current work of the practicing engineers, means that the course material must be very highly adaptive. Simply

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stated, the instructor must begin with one course plan and be able to adapt it to a higher or lower level depending on the background of the attending engineers. Further, for motivation the instructor must be able to include examples based on the present work content of the attending engineers. Since professional development courses typically range from three to ve days duration for six to eight hours per day, this means that the instructor must be able to develop course material in an extremely short period of time. Also, it means that the rst several hours of such courses must be highly interactive so that the instructor can ascertain the background and current interests of the engineers. For a professional development course in mechatronics, control system material is always limited to single input, single output (SISO), linear time invariant (LTI) systems. Since examples taken from the present workload of the attending engineers are typically much more dicult than this, techniques for the complex nonlinear systems must be discussed. Restricting the content to SISO/LTI systems means that much of the course material can be prepared in advance in spite of the desire to make the course highly adaptive. A discussion of the course content for these professional development courses will illustrate the point made above. The courses oered by TCG are heavily model based. The engineers are presented with a mechatronic system. The system is described and a physical model for the system is developed. Following this, a mathematical model for the system is developed. The system is then simulated on a computer and a control system is designed. The closed-loop system is then simulated and compared with the open-loop response. It should be noted that these are the same steps stressed in the university course. The dierence in the professional development course is that these steps form the basis for the course and are taught as a design process and a design procedure. To aid the practicing engineer with the steps, TCG has designed and fabricated several simple mechatronic systems. These systems help keep the engineer motivated at each step in the process. While developing the physical and mathematical models, the engineer is able to make measurements on the actual system. After completing the open-loop simulation of the system, the engineer can compare the simulated response to the response of the actual system. Finally, after designing the closed-loop compensator and simulating the closed-loop response, the engineer can implement the compensator on the actual system and compare the actual closed-loop response to that simulated. The steps in this process are repeated as many times as possible for dierent systems given the allotted time for the course. This enables the engineer to become familiar with the process so that he can use it in his work. The simple systems that are used in the course encompass the basic elements of mechatronic systems: d.c. motors, stepper motors, thermal elements, pneumatics, hydraulics, smart materials, etc. More systems were developed than can be typically used in a ve-day course. This permits the adoption of the course material to the current work content of the attending engineers. However, to motivate the practicing engineer further, a real example from their current workload is prepared. This material is selected on the rst day by discussing their current designs. A simplied model of this system along with a simulation is developed and presented to the class

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tan pronto como sea posible. Adems, dado que el curso est adaptado para una empresa en particular, material en las tendencias de futuro de su industria se presenta. Este materialse obtiene de la literatura abierta y la Internet. 3. Enseanza de controles a travs de la mecatrnica: un enfoque integrado Como resultado de la realizacin de talleres de tres das de mecatrnica, principalmente para la prctica de los ingenieros, como parte del Programa de Desarrollo Profesional de ASME y tambin llevar a cabo todos los das, manos a la mecatrnica, talleres para los ingenieros de la industria, las siguientes observaciones generales se presentan. Estos no son tan crticos, sino como cuestiones que deben ser inmediatamente abordados por los dos profesores universitarios e ingenieros en ejercicio. Ellos sirven como motivacin para un enfoque integrado para la enseanza del diseo mecatrnico de control del sistema.
1. Control design and implementation is still the domain of the specialist. Most mechanical engineers have never had practice designing and implementing a control system as part of a design. This grave deficiency can be traced back to their undergraduate engineering training where controls is taught very late in the curriculum, if at all, as a mathematical exercise with hardly any design and little implementation. 2. Control systems can be added as an afterthought to a design. A second aspect to teaching control late in the educational experience is the reinforcement of the idea that control systems can be added to a design as an afterthought. The use of control should be stressed as a part of the design process and an aspect that must be considered as the design is proceeding. 3. Very few engineers perform any kind of physical and mathematical modelling. The standard procedure in industrial design is to build and test each design concept. Engineers are under such pressure to deliver hardware, they are not given the time to model and develop physical insight. This is true even if it can be shown that much money and time can be saved when problems arise or improvements need to be made if modelling were performed early in the design process. Even if engineers are given the time to model, physical modelling is a subject neglected in undergraduate engineering education since, in most instances, the problem presented starts not with the actual system, but with a physical model, and the problem ends with computer simulation results and no comparison to the actual system behavior. Also, to teach modelling requires experience with actual physical systems something that is lacking in many faculty members. 4. Mathematics is a subject that is not viewed as enhancing one's engineering skills but as an obstacle to avoid. At the upper undergraduate levels in engineering, professors do not emphasize enough the importance of mathematics in engineering the build and test mentality starts there. Also, the computer programs so widely used are often used without any understanding of the underlying physical and mathematical principles involved. This is related to the avoidance of physical and mathematical modelling, as often any modelling that is done is viewed as not being very useful, as it is often done by engineers with no hardware experience. Math-

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ematics and modelling are essential tools in every mechatronics engineer's toolbox. 5. Very few engineers have the balance between analysis and hardware essential for success. Our engineering education system does not emphasize this enough. This trend will worsen as engineering schools continue to cut costs and rely more and more on computers to perform virtual experiments. How often have we heard someone say that the experiment must be wrong since the experimental results do not match the simulation results? That is very scary indeed! These observations are most relevant to the eld of mechatronics as physical and mathematical modelling skills, analysis skills, control design and implementation skills, and experimentation and hardware implementation skills are essential to success in mechatronic system design. 4. Conclusion The need for control in industrial designs is demonstrated by their proliferation in modern products. Consumer products, toys, home appliances, automobiles, oce machines and virtually any product which used to employ complex mechanisms now sports an electronic user interface and sensors to monitor performance and improve operation. The design of these products is the realm of the mechatronics engineer and thus it is necessary that these engineers understand the application of control to their designs at both the theoretical and practical level. It is the duty of educators to prepare their students for these modern design tasks.