Interactive Control Systems Tools

Introduction

Control system design includes activities like modeling, identification, analysis, simulation, design, implementation, and verification. A good system design is combination of many different elements-control theory, algorithms, engineering judgment, intuition, rules of thumb, etc. To develop such skills the students should be provided with strong theoretical and engineering ability. This is a major challenge for the education in automatic control. Theoretical issues, typically related to mathematics and physics, can be successfully taught in the ordinary classroom; however, the engineering abilities require insight and intuition, which can be acquired and developed only through extensive laboratory work. In the past control engineers developed very good insight into system dynamics by doing experimental work on analog computers. They were able to see at once the effects of changing the system parameters and structure and develop good engineering sense.

The tools introduced here are designed to have mostly pedagogical value. Eventhough they are particularly useful for developing skills and insight, the tools can be also useful for ordinary analysis and design up to some extent. They focus on the basic essentials and are available any time, which allows students to work at their own pace. Both, Japanese and English versions of the tools are available.

We hope that these tools would contribute to the education in automatic control and we are continuously improving and extending them. We will appreciate any feedback about the tools and any advise, and we are willing to satisfy the needs of the users if these tools as much as we can.

The source code of this system is available for download from http://shiwasu.ee.ous.ac.jp. In order to run them one needs the MATLAB software. This version of the software works under MATLAB versions 5.3., 6.0, 6.1, 6.5., and the Student Edition of MATLAB.

The source code is copyrighted by the Control Systems Lab., Dept. of Electronic Engineering, Fac. of Engineering, Okayama University of Science, and can be freely copied, used, and distributed for educational purpose only. The source code must be distributed and used in whole together with the README.txt file which is part of the code.