Design and implementation of a microcontroller based workstation with educational purposes for the control systems area

This paper presents the design and implementation of a microcontroller based workstation for improving the learning process of undergraduate students in the Digital Control Systems Area. High level tools such as Simulink® and Labview® have provided excellent results in the development of laboratory experiments due to their ease of use and friendly user interface. Students that develop their control projects using these tools do not commonly learn important concepts such as motor driver implementation, digital to analog converter and analog to digital converter. The implementation of this work is based on a pedagogical experiment that includes a set of workshops and a course project development. Workshops were designed following a backward design approach in which the content, assessment, and pedagogy used to implement the proposed system are aligned. Assessment tools revealed that the learning objectives were accomplished and students showed an acceptance toward this tool.