Copyright © IFAC Advances in Control Education

Massachusetts. USA. 1991

MICROPROCESSOR· BASED CONTROL

SYSTEMS: A FIRST STEP IN TEACHING
MECHATRONICS
R. Shoureshi* and N. Kubota**

*School of Mechanical Engineering. Purdue University . West Lafayette.

IN 47907. USA
**Production Engineering Developmet Lab .. Nippon Electric Corporation.
484 Tsukagoshi. 3-Chome. Saiwai-ku. Kawasaki. Kanagawa 210. Japan

Abstract. Electronics has changed in many ways our thought process. our design process. our system
control process. etc. Many industrial products from appliances and factory machines to transportation
systems. and financial operations use some forms of microprocessors. Thus mechanical and electronic
systems are merging into a new system with computer engineering being the vehicle for this merger. This
has resulted into a new field names "Mechatronics." Thus Mechatronics is the integration of mechanical.
electronic and computer engineering. For the last seven years we have taken steps toward teaching our
control engineers the subject of mechatronics through design. analysis. modeling and control
implementation using microprocessors. Our focus has been on providing an environment which would
stimulate the thinking process in terms of mechatronics. This paper will present our approach in terms of
hardware. software and teachware. Several projects and their implementation using laboratory experiments
will be described. These will include on-line system identification using an 80386 microprocessor.
Application areas which will be presented in the paper include active vibration control of a laboratory
structure. active noise control in an office space. and adaptive control of a refrigeration cycle.

Keywords. Mechatronics. Interfacing. Electromechanical. System Identification.

INTRODUCTION

Electronics is changing society and the way we think about
engineering practice. Integration of electronics. mechanical
engineering. and computer engineering as coined by a
Japanese firm in the early 1970s. is called Mechatronics. The
age of mechatronics owes its origin to the microprocessor-a-
nail-head-size piece of silicon with thousands of
programmable transistors. Mechatronics is at the heart of
precision consumer products. These products include:
automobiles, airplanes. sewing machines. modern machine
tools. video imaging equipment (camera. camcorders, etc.).
microwave ovens, heating and cooling systems, VCRs, etc.
Equipped with one or more microprocessors, these familiar
items are much faster, more efficient, or easier to use than their
earlier counterparts.
Electronics is contributing to the smartness of sensors and
actuators. Digital outputs have made signal processing more
accurate and versatile. Microprocessors have made
implementation of advanced control techniques on small scale
products feasible.
International competition is forcing economics on
manufacturers. Previously the electronic section of a
mechanical device would be subcontracted. Today, the
mechanical functions and electronics are often designed
together in house. Thus it is the role of universities to educate
engineers with mechatronics backgrounds. At a minimum
level we should familiarize engineers and demonstrate the
capabilities of microprocessors.

Mechatronics was an inevitable natural progression as the
computer became more common and less expensive. The
advantages are so great that industry world wide has been
forced into a mechatronic response in order to stay in the
game. Virtually every new mechanical design should consider
a microprocessor subsystem as a possible solution. Old
designs should be reevaluated for an electronic option, if the
product is to remain competitive.
About fifteen years ago, automobiles were mechanical
products with electrical applications limited to ignition,
lighting, and entertainment systems. Today, there are many
functions in automobiles controlled by microprocessors.
Cruise control, engine control, climate control, anti-lock brake
systems (ABS), four-wheel drive, active suspension, odometer
display, transmission, etc. are examples of microprocessor-
based functions available on todays automobile. Drive by
wire, collision avoidance, electronic muffler, navigation
system, and interior active noise and vibration controls will be
available to the consumer not in the too distant future.
At Purdue University we have initiated one of the earliest
attempt in educating engineering students with mechatronics.
In 1984, the author introduced a course entitled:
"Microprocessors in Electromechanical Systems". He
developed a well-known laboratory associated with this course
to provide hands-on capabilities for students while introducing
them to real-life applications of microprocessors, their
software, interfacing, and hardware issues. Since then, the
course and laboratory have been upgraded so that everyday
changes and upgrades of microprocessors technology can be
introduced to the students. In addition to the regular
engineering students, the course has been offered, annually, in
a short course format to engineers in industry. This paper
provides some of the details of this course and the ideas behind
the experiments of its associated laboratory. This course and
laboratory have been duplicated in a number of schools.

103

Microprocessors in Electromechanical Systems
Many of the control systems have electromechanical
components as their plant, sensors. and/or actuators. This
introduction of microprocessors in the sense of drivers of
electromechanical systems is of great interest. Our course and
laboratory have been designed to satisfy the following
objectives.
I. Provide a basic knowledge of microprocessors. their
architecture. and their operations.
2. Provide a thorough knowledge of how microprocessors
and peripheral devices are interfaced. including
understanding of different communication modes
between processors and/or peripheral devices.
3. Provide an understanding of how microprocessors can
be utilized in solving real-life engineering problems.
including the required software. hardware and
interfacing systems.
The lecture material covers such topics as architectures of
different microprocessors. memory management. high and
low-level software development. theoretical aspects of
implementing digital controls using microprocessors.
electronically controlled actuators. and design of interfacing
units between microprocessors and input/output (I/O) devices.
Communication standards such as RS-232 and IEEE 488 and
their networking applications are described in the lectures.
The laboratory has experiments which complement and
reinforce those topics covered in the lectures. These
experiments are listed below.
I. Design of Electronic Circuitries Using Transistors.
Diodes. and Logic Gates.
2. Machine Level Programming and Burning EPROMs for
Development of Board Level Microcontrollers.
3. Interrupt Driven Serial Communication Between Two
Microprocessors and Between Microprocessor and
External Devices.
4. Design and Construction of Analog-to-Digital and
Digital-to-Analog Conveners.
5. Motion Control and Microprocessor Interfacing of
Two-Dimensional Manipulators.
6. Temperature Control of a Nonlinear Heating/Cooling
System.
7. Cruise Control of a Four-Cylinder Air Engine.
8. Semi-Active Vibration Control Using Adaptive
Isolators.
9. Control of a Modulated (Adaptive) Refrigeration
System.
10. Microprocessor-Based Control of an Invened Pendulum.
11. On-Line System Identification and Control of a
Counter-Flow Heat Exchanger.
12. Optically Controlled DC Motor.
As the titles of these experiments imply. each of them is
designed to resemble and simulate challenges of real-life
problems. These experiments provide a good vision and
understanding of potentials of microprocessors in solving
engineering problems.
104
In terms of control issues. these experiments include single
input/single output (SISO) systems. Multi-input/multi-output
(MIMO) systems. linear and nonlinear. time varying and time
invariant systems. Experiments such as Counter-Flow Heat
Exchanger and Inverted Pendulum introduce students to the
challenging problem of control of distributed parameter
systems.
Figures 1 and 2 show the schematic of the modulated
refrigeration cycle and its driver circuitry for pressure and
temperature sensors. Figures 3 and 4 represent the electronic
circuits that students have to construct in order to develop NO
and D/A conveners. Interesting observation for them is when
they replace resistors of these circuitries with those of higher
or lower values and evaluate results of conversion.
Figure 5 demonstrates all of the components involved in a
digital implementation of a closed-loop multi variable control
system on a heating/cooling experiment. It is interesting to
note all of the extra gains introduced by such components as
ADC and DAC which are not usually encountered in a
theoretical development of the control system.
As a sample of these experiments. the one on semi-active
vibration control systems is described in more details.
Students are given pan of the formulation and are expected to
perform system identification and real-time control.
System Identification for Semi-Active Vibration Control
Semi-active vibration control seems an attractive alternative
for vibration isolation in such systems as automobiles. power
generators. and the general rotating machinery. Figures 6 and
7 represent schematics of a desk-top model of a semiactive
vibration isolator. The system is composed of a variable speed
DC motor which has an imbalanced load. Rotation of this
imbalanced load creates vibration. a rubber air bag is used as a
semi-active isolator. The objective of this experiment is to
have a microprocessor-based controller that determines and
provides the optimal air pressure inside the air bag such that
the vibration transmission to the base is minimized at all
rotating velocities of the motor.
System Identification
In order to develop the optimal control input. an accurate
model of the system has to be derived. As shown in Fig. 7. the
system is at least third order. However. in order to identify
this system an ARX (auto-regressive with exogenous input)
model of the following form is used.
yet) + aly(t-l) + .... +an.y(t-n.) = b l u(t-l) + b2u(t-2)+... .
+ bllt. U(t-nb) + e(t)
By using the shift operator q. the above representation can be
written as
yet) = B(q) u(t) + _1_ e(t)
A(q) A(q)
where yet) is the output. acceleration at the base. u(t) is the
input. acceleration of the motor. and e(t) is a white noise. The
A and B polynomials are defined as following.
A(q) = 1 + alq-I + .... + an. q-n.
B(q) = b l q-I + .... + bllt. q-Ilt.
Thus the system identification reduces to determination of
coefficients of A and B polynomials. If q, is defined as the
regression vector and e is the parameter vector. namely
 <I? = [-y(t-I), -y(t-2), ..., -y(t-n.), u(t-I), .. .,u(t-nb)]
eT = [ai, a2, .... , a,.,., bl, b2, .... , bn,,l
~ · .. ,a ill.

E . paft. 'OIl
then v .....

Based on the least squares (LS) criterion, the following

equation for estimation of parameters is given.

e= eo + ~ [~T Wl [~T e]
where eo is the initial estimates and N is the number of data
samples. If the instrumental variable (IV) method is used, the
folIowing estimates would be derived.

e= [~ L~(t) ~T (t)]-I ~ L~(t) yet)

1>=1 N 1=1
Fig. I Modulated Refrigeration Cycle

where ~(t) is called the instruments.

Table I shows the results of system identification based on

different order models and different estimation techniques.
Figure 8 shows the input and output data streams. Figures 9
and 10 represent comparison of model outputs based on ARS-
' o~
LS 10th order and ARX-IV 4th order modeIing techniques.
TH EKt-)?<:ovPLE AMP -16 ",

Once the system is identified, then optimal control techniques (4 Rw"l .)

can be used to derive the required control input.

,r ., ~ - ~ 1

CONCLUSIONS oJ_ o : I

PsL : ~,--"---.1J . ~ ,:
Today's and tomorrow's industry needs engineers with L _ _ J
mechatronics background. It is the responsibility of the
O/6k ' I
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universities to upgrade and modify their curriculums and

course contents to provide environment that would educate Fig. 2 Driver Circuitry for Sensors of Refrigeration
engineers who can satisfy the industrial needs. Understanding Experiment
of microprocessors, their software and hardware issues are
important topics, especially for control engineers. Our
experience over the past seven years has proved that although
it takes resources and faculty time to develop appropriate '~ i:~ c,
20< ,'( ,OK
;:;;"'--T-o¥N--,---~-~~- 1' ; "
r .! I,;
.. ,
I '
course~s) ~d laborato~es to teach . mechatronics, but i~ it is ,ll- ~
done nght It has a major payoff 10 tenns of the qualtty o~. :" , I . ,'
education and satisfaction of the nation's industrial needs. :!O '"fu ~ l'·K
B\ : ,. • ; 2DK j
MODEL, ORDER, and NUMERATOR DEMONINATOR . ,;0 '1" <,K
TECHNIQUE POLYNOMIAL POL YNOMIAL

:: :~:: co~:: ro~~~: :+1 .< . • ~. ~,

b l =0.18596
b3 = -0.10504
a2 =0.40652
a3 = 0.70777
,~
7""
~'*'
ll4 =·0.41955

ARX, 10th order, LS b l =0.16040 a I = -1.02890 Fig. 3 Circuit for Construction of Digital-to-Analog
b2 = ·0.00651 a2 = 0.17050 Converter
b3 =-0.12174 a3 = 0.27901
b4 = 0.29238 ll4 = 0.22850
bs = ·0.02807 as = -0.79454
b6 = ·0.3998 I ~ =0.65166
b7 = 0.01599 a7 =-0.36170
bg = 0.20734 ag - -0.20556
______
b9 = 0.·0.08684 ~
~ oc.

=0.01794 ,,
alO = 0.10478 I

ARX, 2nd order, IV b l =0.10969 al = -1.39808

a2 = 0.79554
ARX, 4th order, IV b l = 0.14823 al = -185299
b2 = -0.04057 a2 =1.11101 Fig. 4 Circuit for Construction of Analog-to-Digital
b3 = -0.06183 a3 = 0.27862 Converter
ll4 = -0.4 7096

10S
 Temp = 2.1 to II 9<T.C. Vulul

Fig. 5 Digitally Implemented Heating and Cooling System

2,_______- r________. -____~IN~ :P~U~T~I~I~----~------_r---

.l,un

. I .. __ ...-. - ~ .. ------~------- -------~-------

() ~o 100 150 200 250

Fig. 6 Schematic of Adaptive Vibration Isolator 1:.. ("' ... 1

Fig. 8 Input and Output Data

.ldapU..
PneumaUc
VlbraUon
lIo1at.or

Fig. 7 Schematic for Modeling of Vibration Isolator

106
 0 .6

0 .4 I
,,
"

0 .2

Z 0
:;
a.
:; - 0 .2
0

- 0. 4

- 0 .6

- 08 ---~ -~

0 0. 5 15 2 2.5

Time (sec)

Fig. 9 Comparison of Actual and Estimated Response Using

ARX-LS, 10th order Model

0 .6

0 .4

0.2

Z 0
:;
.9-
a -0.2

- 04

-0.6

-08 ---
0 05 15 2 25

rime (sec )

Fig. lOComparison of Actual and Estimated Response Using

ARX-IV, 4th order Model

107