Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect Procedia Computer Science 76 (2015) 34 – 39
2015 IEEE International Symposium on Robotics and Intelligent Sensors (IRIS 2015)
Implementation of a New Engineering Approach for Undergraduate Control System Curriculum using a Robotic System I. Elamvazuthia*, H. J. Leea, J. C. Nga, H. L. Songa, Y. X. Tionga, A.M. Parimib and A.K. Swainc a
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS 32610 Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia b Dept. of Electrical Engineering, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad-500078, India c Dept. of Info. Technology and Systems, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode 673570, India *E-mail:
[email protected] (Corresponding Author)
Abstract Traditional engineering education at university level has many limitations which has prompted the growth of newer approaches. On such an approach is CDIO which stands for Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate. CDIO is an innovative initiative, which offers an alternative educational framework for producing better-prepared and highly skilled engineering graduates. The students learn to solve problems and complete projects following stages such as Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate. To improve the teaching and learning of engineering students, the CDIO initiative aims to make four important improvements; increases active and hands-on learning, emphasizes problem formulation and solution, explores the underlying concepts of the tools and techniques of engineering, and institute innovative and exciting ways of gathering feedback. This paper discusses the use a parking and 3-point turn robotic system to learn control system curriculum in terms of modeling (classical and modern control), analysis (transient, stability and steady state error) and design (PID) using the CDIO approach. © 2015 2015 I. Published by Elsevier B.V. This isbyanElsevier open access B.V.article under the CC BY-NC-ND license © Elamvazuthi et al. Published (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committee of the 2015 IEEE International Symposium on Robotics and Intelligent Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committee of the 2015 IEEE International Symposium on Robotics and Intelligent Sensors (IRIS 2015). Sensors (IRIS 2015)
Keywords: Engineering Education; Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate (CDIO) Approach; Robotic System; Modeling; Transient Analysis; Stability; Steady State Error; PID;
*Corresponding Author: Tel: +605-3687882; Fax: +605-3657443 E-mail address:
[email protected]
1877-0509 © 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committee of the 2015 IEEE International Symposium on Robotics and Intelligent Sensors (IRIS 2015) doi:10.1016/j.procs.2015.12.272
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1. Introduction Although there are various pedagogical models, innovation in engineering education has gained increased attention in recent years with two popular models, Problem Based Learning (PBL) and ‘Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate’ (CDIO) 1, 2. The origins for PBL does not come from one source or organization, but emerge from a societal period with experimentations in the educational systems. The pedagogy behind the PBL practices that were established has developed into a sound theory of learning and is today well documented in all aspects of curriculum development, learning and competence development. Since the establishment of the PBL universities, the PBL models have been implemented all over the world. Especially the McMaster and the Maastricht models are utilized in health and law, whereas the Aalborg model with the problem based and project based/organized is most often used in variations in engineering and science3, 4. “Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate’’ (CDIO) promotes goal orientated, project based learning where the aims and desired learning outcomes are clearly stated prior to the students starting any project or before any instruction is given. It also promotes curricular reform to include design and build projects, to coordinate and link other subjects in an interdisciplinary engineering course. It aspires to create challenging experiences in which students design, build and operate product or systems. In addition, due to the innovative teaching styles, the initiative requires alternative assessment processes5 - 8. This research put attention to authentic experiences in which learning elements is acted upon by students and targeted, defined, and refined by educators9. The overall objective of the research was to investigate how the CDIO model enhances the learning of undergraduate Control Systems curriculum in a classroom setting. The specific aims of the proposed research were to 1) improve the education of undergraduate engineering students, so that they might better be able to turn the challenges into new opportunities and 2) to identify examples of ‘best practice within the CDIO concept’ in regard to reforming engineering education. In this regard, three major elements of Control Systems curriculum in terms of modeling (classical and modern control), analysis (transient, stability and steady state error) and design (PID) were investigated through the CDIO concept on student learning using a Robotics System. This paper is organized in the following manner. Section 2 describes system configuration and followed by the results and analysis in section 3, and discussion in section 4, and finally conclusion in section 5. 2. System Configuration The system configuration of the 3-point turn robotic system based on LEGO Mindstorm is shown in Fig. 1 and the navigation platform is shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 1. Robotic System
Fig. 2. Robotic system on the track for demonstration
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The mechanical sub-system of the robot comprised of two main sub-systems; namely, the mobile unit to provide locomotion with two DC servomotors and manipulator mechanisms to carry out required tasks using one DC servomotor and input devices such as colour, voice, touch and light sensors. The control sub-system comprised of the NXT controller and the associated algorithm. In this research, the robotic system used color sensor to sense the color before doing any action. If-else loop is used in NXT controller to determine what actions do the mobile robot needs to take. The actions associated with the colour are shown in Table 1. Table 1. Actions to be taken by the mobile robot Color (using ball)
Response
Blue ball
Move forward and demonstrate parking and threepoint turn, then return in place
Red ball
The robot will not move and gives a command voice “error” repeatedly
No ball
The robot gives a command voice “object” repeatedly to get input of balls
3. Results and Analysis 3.1 Modeling The derivation of the transfer function for a DC servomotor is given as the following10, 11:
(1) 12
The LEGO NXT Servomotor parameters are given in Table 3.1 . Table 2. LEGO NXT Servomotor Parameters12 Parameters
Values 5.262773292 1.979972451 0.0006001689451 0.0047 0.001321184025
Substituting the parameters into Equation (1) would produce the required transfer function. 3.2 Simulation Simulation using MATLAB software to implement different type of controllers the such as proportional controller (P), proportional integral controller (PI), proportional derivative controller (PD), and proportional integral derivative controller (PID) together with plant was carried out until a desired response was obtained. The open-loop step response, the Proportional control response (P), the Proportional-Integral (PI) response, the ProportionalDerivative (PD) response and the Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) response are observed as in Figs. 3 to 7.
I. Elamvazuthi et al. / Procedia Computer Science 76 (2015) 34 – 39
Fig. 3. Open-loop Step
Fig. 5. Proportional-Integral (PI)
Fig. 4. Proportional Control (P)
Fig. 6. Proportional-Derivative (PD)
Fig. 7. Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID)
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3.3 Analysis The analysis involved steady-state error which is defined as the difference between the input and the output for a prescribed test input as t approaching infinity and stability. To determine the stability of the closed-loop system, Routh-Hurwatz criterion method was used. The method is able to determine the number of system poles in left halfplane, right half-plane or jw-axis. The method need basically involves generation of data called a Routh-Hurwitz (RH) table and interpret the RH table to determine the number poles in the left half-plane, right half-plane and on the jw-axis. The overall Effects of proportional gain ( ), integral gain ( ) and derivative gain ( ) are shown in Table 3. Table 3. Effects of each Controller Closed-loop Response Kp Ki Kd
Rise Time
Overshoot
Settling Time
Steady State Error
Decrease Decrease Small Change
Increase Increase Decrease
Small Change Increase Decrease
Decrease Eliminate Small Change
After analyzing the results of Figs. 4 to 7, it can be seen that the Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) has produced the best results compared to other controllers as per the theory. 4. Discussion The example provided in this paper, i.e., ‘3-point turn robotic system based on LEGO Mindstorm’ is one of the projects carried out by the undergraduate students using the CDIO concept. Several other projects are listed in Table 4. Table 4. Project using the CDIO Concept Projects
1. Package Sorter
2. Rescue Robot
3. Detection Robot
4. Cleaning Robot
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The projects listed in Table 4 were used as part of the learning of the three major elements of Control Systems curriculum; i.e., modeling, analysis and design. The use of CDIO concept has enhanced the student learning and the Robotics System assisted considerably in achieving the goals. 5. Conclusion In this paper, the preliminary use of the CDIO Concept to improve the teaching and learning of engineering students has been discussed. At the end of the study, it was found that it increased the students’ active and hands-on learning, the students were able to formulate problems and provide engineering solutions, and the students were able to explore the control system concepts effectively. It was shown that by carrying out the Control System studies using the Robotic System, the students were able to enhance their understanding of the Control Systems concepts. In future, a more systematic study would be carried out to gauge the effectiveness of the CDIO concept using a robotics system. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), Malaysia, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, India and Indian Institute of Management, India for their support. References 1.
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