Because of its perceived level of difficulty, closed-loop system identification (SID) has suffered a historically bad rap. But powered by a supervisory control and data acquisition (scada) system donated by Adroit Technologies - a Proudly South African producer of technologically advanced, 32-bit, open automation, scadas - the University of Pretoria's Control Systems Section in the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, has successfully introduced a new method of teaching closed-loop system identification to undergraduate students in a simple and uncomplicated manner.
Closed-loop SID refers to the process in which plant models are identified using data collected from closed-loop experiments, where the underlying process is fully or partly under feedback control. Despite its bad reputation, closed-loop SID is preferential to open loop for unstable plants, or where experiments must be controlled for production, economic and/or safety reason, or where systems contain inherent feedback mechanisms.
Professor Ian K. Craig, section head: control systems in the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering at the University of Pretoria and closed-loop system identification specialist, Elsa de Klerk, former post-graduate student and now of Sasol Technology's Control Systems Department at Secunda simulated real world application by creating a 'wind tunnel' (composed of a hair dryer blowing into a tunnel) with variable airflow rates and temperatures, a PC 30 card in lieu of an expensive PLC, a PC running on MS Windows 98 and the Adroit scada to perform data acquisition, logging, trending, animation and control, as well as to provide visibility into the wind tunnel.
Single-input-single-output (SISO) transfer function between the voltage applied to the fan and the measured flow rate of air is controlled and identified by the closed-loop data. By successfully completing the experiment, students understood the basic closed-loop system identification (SID), applied closed-loop SID theory, designed and conducted closed-loop SID experiments, interpreted and analysed closed-loop data and were made aware of the difficulties and advantages of the different closed-loop SIDs available.
Undergraduates at the University of Pretoria using the Adroit scada to assimilate and analyse a real-world application
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