Integrated Electromechanical Controls Laboratory using Programmable Logic Controllers

The energy conversion laboratory at Christian Brothers University was reorganized in the summer of 1992 in an effort to design and build a new integrated electomechanical controls laboratory. The laboratory is a multidimentional facility in a sense that it will allow the students from three engineering disciplines, chemical, electical and mechanical to run experiments in linear controls, energy conversion, digital controls, and robotics using state of the art data acquisiton tools and Allen-Bradley Programmable Logic Controllers. This laboratory was set up under the NSF grant USE-91-51213 and utilizes the same space as the previous energy conversion laboratory facility. A survey of components and tools used in the new facility are presented as well as results of some design projects currently being developed in the new facility. This paper also describes the use of Local Area Networks, Robotics, and future directions in the use of the facility for education of linear, digital and mulivariable controls as well as engineering management.