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Teaching Control with Basic Maths: Introduction to Process Control Course as a Novel Educational Approach for Undergraduate Engineering Programs

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Abstract

In this article, we discuss a novel education approach to control theory in undergraduate engineering programs. In particular, we elaborate on the inclusion of an introductory course on process control during the first years of the program, to appear right after the students undergo basic calculus and physics courses. Our novel teaching proposal comprises debating the basic elements of control theory without requiring any background on advanced mathematical frameworks from the part of the students. The methodology addresses, conceptually, the majority of the steps required for the analysis and design of simple control systems. Herein, we thoroughly detail this educational guideline, as well as tools that can be used in the classroom. Furthermore, we propose a cheap test-bench kit and an open-source numerical simulator that can be used to carry out experiments during the proposed course. Most importantly, we also assess on how the Introduction to process control course has positively affected the undergraduate program on Control and Automation Engineering at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC, Brazil). Specifically, we discuss the outcomes of implementing our education approach at UFSC from 2016 to 2023, considering students’ rates of success in other control courses and perspectives on how the chair helped them throughout the course of their program. Based on randomised interviews, we indicate that our educational approach has had good teaching–learning results: students tend to be more motivated for other control-related subjects, while exhibiting higher rates of success.

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Code Availability

The open-source numerical simulator for simple control systems, as detailed in Sect. 9, can be found in Google Drive (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10TMMhUFv34BVOIA1vD_kQgAPrO1NwEGa?usp=sharing) and GitHub(https://github.com/GabrielBarbosaUFSC/FerramentasInterativas2023). An implementation guideline for the experimental kit is available at the following Google Drive repository(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fqQ2v8hskcrL0y0gIeuBP0Z-yPi1Hh5_/view?usp=sharing).

Notes

  1. The university ranking debated by Morandin et al. (2020) is recognised standard in Brazil. Anyhow, we indicate that the Brazilian National Exam of Student Performance (ENADE) also offers several qualitative discussions on the topic of educational quality, per country region and per program category (public university, private engineering school, federal institutes, and so forth), which are of scholastic interest.

  2. We note that the control subjects in the fourth semester of the courses at UFRGS and UFRJ cover, in fact, modelling, system and signal topics, and not really control systems itself.

  3. https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.06001.

  4. Complementary, an overview of the program of the proposed Introduction to process control course can be found in Appendix A.

  5. The experiment must respect the established bounds for the considered variables.

  6. In these models, \(u, \,y\) and q represent the incremental variables, with q being the system disturbance.

  7. The implementation for discrete systems is the same, replacing the continuous real variable t with a discrete integer variable k.

  8. In the discrete-time case, \(u(k) = K_p e(k)\).

  9. This condition is valid for all types of feedback controllers.

  10. Here, we use \(u_{\text {max}}\) and \(u_{\text {min}}\) as the maximum and minimum allowable values for the manipulated variable, respectively.

  11. In the following online repository, an implementation guideline for the experimental kit is available: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fqQ2v8hskcrL0y0gIeuBP0Z-yPi1Hh5_/view?usp=sharing.

  12. In particular, sixty-nine undergraduate students took part in these interviews. Each one of the following tables presents a question that was asked and the percentage of students that marked each possible response.

  13. https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.06001.

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Acknowledgements

An early version of paper was presented at XXIV Congresso Brasileiro de Automática (CBA 2022).

The Authors thank the support from the Department of Automation and Systems at UFSC and the collaboration from Amir Naspolini and Gabriel Barbosa.

Funding

The Authors acknowledge the financial support of CAPES, an entity of the Brazilian Government dedicated to the training of human resources, of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Brazil), under grants \(304032/2019-0\) and \(403949/2021-1\), and, also, the financial aid from the Human Resources Program of the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Bio-fuels (PRH-ANP), supported with resources from the investments of oil companies qualified in the Research, Development and Innovation Clause of ANP Resolution n\(^{\text {o}}\, 50\)/2015.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Automação e Sistemas, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil

    Julio Elias Normey-Rico & Marcelo Menezes Morato

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  1. Julio Elias Normey-Rico
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  2. Marcelo Menezes Morato
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Correspondence to Marcelo Menezes Morato.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest. Both authors contributed equally to this work.

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All undergraduate students consented to participate in the anonymous interview.

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Julio Elias Normey-Rico and Marcelo Menezes Morato have contributed equally to this work.

Course Program Overview

Course Program Overview

Next, we present an overview of the program of the Introduction to process control course, to be taught just after basic calculus and physics courses.

  • The first part of the course covers the topics of process and systems. In particular, the program comprises the following topics: Processes; Signals and systems; System properties (classifications, linearity, stability).

  • The second part covers models and time responses. Specifically, the following topics are debated: Modelling principles and approaches; Tuning first-order models from experimental data; Time response of first-order linear systems; Closing the loop: dynamic output feedback control (the different control objectives, hierarchical control and the automation pyramid,control design specifications).

  • Finally, along its third part, the course focuses on process control design itself, covering the topics of: On-off control synthesis; Proportional control; Proportional-integral control and corresponding practical aspects (set-point weighting strategies, input saturation and anti-windup) strategies; Proportional-integral-derivative control.

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Normey-Rico, J.E., Morato, M.M. Teaching Control with Basic Maths: Introduction to Process Control Course as a Novel Educational Approach for Undergraduate Engineering Programs. J Control Autom Electr Syst 35, 41–63 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40313-023-01063-9

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