A University Course and Laboratory on RCS

 


 

A university course has been given on RCS and here we give some ideas on how this course ran to provide ideas on how to implement such a course (or at least a laboratory) on RCS.

There are basically two formats that you could consider:


 

 Syllabus

Department of Electrical Engineering

The Ohio State University
 
 

EE 758 Control Laboratory II

(Real Time Control Software for 

Complex Control Systems Development)

 


Instructor: Prof. Passino, 416 Dreese Labs
GRA Help: V. Gazi and M. Moore
 
Laboratory: 761 Dreese Laboratory:
Tuesday, 8:30-12:30: Call No. 07153-0
Thursday, 8:30-12:30: Call No. 07154-5
Classroom: 705 Dreese Laboratory: Thursday, 3:30, for both sections
 
 

Prerequisites: Knowledge of C programming, signals and systems, and control design. You do not need to have taken EE 757 to take this class. If you took EE 758 in Sp'97 you can also take this course (but in this case see the instructor to work out how to get credit for the class).
 
 

Objectives: To develop and implement distributed real-time control systems using the NIST Real Time Control Software (RCS) and to develop control modules using a variety of conventional and intelligent control methods.

 Class Topic   Laboratory Topic
 Week 1   RCS Introduction (CMS/NML Overview)  Laboratory hardware (data acquisition card)
 Week 2   Programming in the neutral message language (NML)   Laboratory software (C, C++ programming, OS, network)
 Week 3  Writing NML configuration files, RCS diagnostics  Pendulum experiment (controller development)
 Week 4   Other classes and functions in the RCS library  Pendulum experiment (RCS implementation)
 Week 5  RCS applications (overview and simulation)  Tank experiment (level, temperature controller development)
 Week 6  RCS development project overview  Tank experiment (RCS implementation)
 Week 7  Distributed control problem (background, real-world details)  Project: low level control design (distributed control experiment)
 Week 8  RCS Design review  RCS design/implementation
 Week 9  RCS design review  RCS implementation and testing
 Week 10  RCS design report (student presentations)  RCS demonstration (student demonstrates RCS experiment)

 

Above, the approach is to introduce RCS on a very simple academic control problem (the pendulum), and then to demonstrate a hierarchical design for the tank experiment where we have low level temperature and level controls, and a higher-level supervisor (and monitoring and human interface functions on a remote computer). The students then use RCS for two different experiments, and exercise most of the functions in the RCS Library.