— UCSIGNAL and UCONLINE —
Teaching Chemical Engineering Process Control Systems through hands-on, real-time
experience
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Nothing compares to actual experience for getting a good understanding of
control system design. For more than a decade at U.C. Berkeley,
ChemE. students have taken a lab course
where actual (small-scale) examples of plant are controlled by desktop
computers. They design and run their own control configurations on the
various units, finding out how they behave — or misbehave —
in real time.
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Both the hardware and software have of course been continually upgraded
over the years. The computers are now Pentium based machines running
Windows NT, and the programs are designed for easy interaction.
Together, the two applications,
UCSIGNAL
and UCONLINE,
provide the means
for the students to design and test their ideas.
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UCONLINE is the program
that actually runs the plant, through an analog interface unit in each
machine. A control system configuration comprises a connected set of
elements that represent all the desired control actions. The students
have access to all the elements through the various program windows, and
can change parameters or connections, even add or delete elements, until
the system is behaving as desired.
The run does not have to be stopped to make changes — their effect
can be seen at once.
The response of any part of the system
can be viewed as a real-time scrolling graph, so it is easy
for students to gauge the performance of their system.
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It is possible to do all the design of a system in
UCONLINE, adding elements
and connecting them into a suitable configuration, but the second program,
UCSIGNAL,
makes things much easier. It presents a graphic diagram of the
configuration, which is then built up by placing and connecting elements via
the mouse. Essentially all the design can be done at this stage, including
the setting of initial parameter values. When students are satisfied with
their design, they generate a file which can be read immediately into
UCONLINE
to set up the control system exactly as they envisaged it.
The instructor can provide an initial fixed schematic of the plant itself,
complete with its sensor and actuator elements, for the students to build
their concepts upon.
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In addition to working with actual plant hardware as described above, versions
of UCONLINE
can provide self-contained simulations of yet other kinds
of plant. Once again UCSIGNAL
— and appropriate base schematics —
are available as a platform for the students' control system design.
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UCONLINE
UCSIGNAL
Process Control Lab
itself