A Novel, Low-Cost Thermal System for Integrating Laboratory Experiences in Undergraduate Controls Courses

Many undergraduate system dynamics & controls courses have limited laboratory experiences. In courses that include labs, many of the experiences include dynamics of motors, electrical systems, and unstable mechanical systems. The dynamics of these systems are often so fast that the system response cannot be viewed or interpreted real-time. This paper presents a novel thermal system that has been designed to address these challenges and provide meaningful lab experiences to students in undergraduate feedback control courses. The presented system offers multiple advantages that are designed to provide impactful lab experiences. The system can be used for multiple lab experiences that span the entire range of topics in a typical undergraduate controls course, including system modeling, time & frequency domain system analysis, design of controllers, and evaluation of controller performance. The system has been designed with the undergraduate student experience in mind, including the use of MATLAB for all student work, safety features that ensure minimal risk to students, and system dynamics that have been sized so that students can watch and interpret the system response real-time. The paper describes the system design and setup, along with sizing calculations used to create appropriate system dynamics. The thermal modeling used to design controllers is then detailed. The laboratory sessions are then described, including topics in thermal system modeling, system parameter identification, frequency analysis, and controller design. The paper concludes by assessing the use of the system in an undergraduate controls course and addressing topics that can be explored for future lab sessions.