Computer Instructional Aids for Undergraduate Control Education

Abstract

Engineering is coming to rely more and more heavily upon the computer for computations, analyses, and graphic displays which aid the design process. A general purpose simulation system, the Time-shared Automatic Control Laboratory (TACL), and a set of computer-aided design programs, Control Oriented Interactive Graphic Analysis and Design (COINGRAD), are being used to introduce undergraduate engineering students to the power and utility of computer-aided tools for automatic control. TACL and COINGRAD simulate time responses for physical systems, provide standard analysis and design calculators, and introduce students to optimization in design. They are simple and user-oriented, have interactive and graphic display capabilities, and employ a natural mathematical language. Since these programs perform the basic calculations required for classical control system analysis, they free the student from the repeated enumeration of system behavior and allow him to concentrate upon the underlying principles involved. (PB)