European Journal of Engineering Education

ISSN: 0304-3797 (Print) 1469-5898 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ceee20

Enhancing automatic control learning through

Arduino-based projects

Hanafy M. Omar

To cite this article: Hanafy M. Omar (2018) Enhancing automatic control learning through
Arduino-based projects, European Journal of Engineering Education, 43:5, 652-663, DOI:
10.1080/03043797.2017.1390548

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2017.1390548

Published online: 20 Oct 2017.

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EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION
2018, VOL. 43, NO. 5, 652–663
https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2017.1390548

Enhancing automatic control learning through Arduino-based

projects
Hanafy M. Omar
Mechanical Engineering Department, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Systems dynamics and automatic control is classified as one of the Received 29 May 2017
toughest courses in the college of engineering at Qassim University Accepted 2 October 2017
according to the statistical analysis of the final grades. This motivated us
KEYWORDS
to think about a new approach to teach this course by extending the Active learning; Arduino;
design term project to include experimental part beside the theoretical automatic control; CDIO;
analysis. This approach has become feasible due to the publicity of the collaborative learning;
low-cost microcontrollers such as the Arduino in the recent years. In this design-based learning;
paper, we present our experience in conducting Arduino-based projects engineering education;
and how we used them to support the teaching of all the automatic project-based course
control subjects in the course such as the mathematical modelling, the
stability analysis, the controller design and the implementation of
the PID controller. It was found that the new approach improves the
attention and the overall performance of the students in the course
which was reflected in the students’ marks in the quizzes and exams.
Moreover, it motivated the students to be creative by utilising the
control theory to design new systems that can be useful for their local
community.

1. Introduction
System dynamics and automatic control is one of the classical subjects in aerospace, mechanical,
electrical, and chemical engineering. Most of the textbooks follow the same technique in delivering
the information. They concentrate on the theoretical analysis using the classical control methods. The
analysis becomes easy and more attractive to the students after introducing Matlab which has
become an essential tool in teaching the fundamentals of automatic control in the most recent text-
books (Franklin et al. 2015; Nise 2015; Ogata 2016; Dorf and Bishop 2017; Golnaraghi and Kuo 2017).
The simulation capabilities in Simulink give the students the ability to integrate the system com-
ponents using blocks. Through this technique, they can understand the performance of each
element and the interaction between these elements such as the plant, the actuator, and the control-
ler which are the main elements in the automatic control loop (Sharma, Nagchaudhuri, and Sanjay
2014). However, all these tools depend on the mathematical equations which make them completely
theoretical.
It was reported in the literature that active and collaborative classroom environment improve the
quality of science and engineering education (Jollands, Jolly, and Molyneaux 2012; Grover et al. 2014;
Analytis, Sadler, and Cutcosky 2015). In these classes, the students learning is done through guided
discovery, rather than through passive traditional lectures. Students work in teams on projects that
are meant to be open-ended, allowing them to develop creative skills. The most important gains from

CONTACT Hanafy Omar hanafy@qec.edu.sa

© 2017 SEFI
 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION 653

the use of active and collaborative teaching methods have been found in student’s conceptual learn-
ing and retention of material (Butterfield, Branch, and Trujillo 2015)
Accreditation bodies, such as the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET),
specify that design is an essential graduate attribute for an engineering programme. However, the
students usually struggle with the design principles regardless of the process used to teach them
(Pee and Leong 2005). Many factors contribute to this struggle, including the selection of the appro-
priate projects, the design platform used in the project, non-availability of components, and financial
constraints. However, the effective use of design-based learning (DBL) has been reported to assist
students in grasping the fundamental design principles. In engineering education, DBL focuses expli-
citly on the design and construction of a final physical project. It was reported by the researchers that
DBL has positive effects on increasing student motivation and engagement (Colsa et al. 2012; Hertzog
and Swart 2016). The student actively participates in the development and creation of the project,
learning actively instead of passively. Moreover, the students gain knowledge and skills that
enable them to solve unexpected problems and be better prepared for the world of engineering
outside of the classroom (Kolmos 2012).
Therefore, the systems dynamics and automatic control course at Qassim University was designed
in such a way to encourage the students to work in teams and be creative through introducing a
design term project in the course assignments. In 2015, the automatic control course was redesigned
according to the 4MAT principles (McCarthy and McCarthy 2006; O’Neill-Blackwell 2012). Eight teach-
ing wheels were developed for the main concepts that should be delivered to the students. The
relationship between the course topics and the course concepts is shown in Table 1. The design
term project can be considered as one of the essential elements to implement these concepts.
All the 4MAT wheels designed for this course contain the project as a tool to practice these con-
cepts on real control systems. The suggested 4MAT wheel for the modelling concept is illustrated in
Figure 1.
Before the fall semester of 2015, semester 361 according to the Qassim University code, this
project was completely theoretical. Each team of students was asked to choose a real-life control
system and implement what they were studying in the automatic control course to this system.
They had to describe the system and its main components, the applications of the system in the
real life, the mathematical modelling, the system response and the controller design. The project
in that form was a good tool to understand the control theory through simulation. But, we observed
that the students had difficulties in recognising the basic elements of the control loop such as the
reference, the actuator and the sensor. The students also were not able to understand the way of
implementing the proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controller. They looked at it as a function
in the s-domain without appreciating the physical meaning of each term in the controller. These
shortages motivated us to extend the term project to include an experimental part. The objective
of the design term project in its new format can be summarised in the following points:

Table 1. Relationship between the course topics and the course concepts.
Topic Umbrella concept
Introduction to automatic control systems Modification
Laplace transform and systems transfer functions Mathematical tools/transformation
Modelling of mechanical systems Modelling
State space representation Transformation
Modelling of electrical systems Modelling
Modelling of fluid and thermal systems Modelling
Time response Behaviour
Routh stability criterion Stability/modification
Root locus analysis Stability/modification
Using Matlab in control analysis Digital computing
Controller design using root locus Modification
Frequency response analysis using Nyquist diagrams Behaviour
Frequency response analysis using bode plots Behaviour
654 H.M. OMAR

The students will Show to the students a

present their work in picture or video of big
the design term building and a model
project which for this building.
contains a part about The Qassim
modeling of a real University and its
system physical model will
be good
Ask some students to
Through the design share their impression
term project, the about these pictures
student will develop the especially the
mathematical model for R R function of the
a real control system L physical model
L
Modeling
R R Give the students real
The student will be mechanical system
asked to apply the L L (robot, water tank, ..etc)
concept of modeling on and let them imagine
another non engineering how to represent or
systems, like economy, describe it to the
wild life,…etc The instructor will others?
During the help give a lecture about
sessions, groups will Modeling (definition,
be formed in the class importance, and
to solve some applications on
problems. different systems such
Assignments and as mechanical,
Quizzes will be given electrical, thermal,
to the students about and fluid), many
this subject. examples will be
discussed

Figure 1. The 4MAT wheel of the modelling concept.

(1) Appreciating the value of feedback control in real-life applications.

(2) Identifying the components of the standard control loop.
(3) Supporting the theoretical study.
(4) Gaining hands-on experience in dealing with real-time control.
(5) Improving the team management skills.
(6) Support the concept of life-long learning.

The implementation of the design term project with the experimental part started in the fall seme-
ster of 2015 with simple projects such as light tracking and temperature control systems. Then, more
projects were added in the next semesters. We started with one Arduino module and a little experi-
ence in dealing with this kind of microcontrollers. Through five semesters, we gained a lot of experi-
ence and a considerable number of implemented projects with different actuators and sensors.
We chose to use Arduino in the control projects because of its low price, its compatibility with
many sensors and actuators and the huge number of experiences gained from using it worldwide
(Galadima 2014). The Arduino has been used in many projects designed by hobbyists (Instructables
2017). Also, its use in the academia is spreading rapidly to improve the learning of different subjects
such as mechatronics (Asato et al. 2015), measurement (Recktenwald and Hall 2011), electrical engin-
eering (Hertzog and Swart 2016) and automatic control (Barber, Horra, and Crespo 2013; Irigoyen, Lar-
zabal, and Priego 2013; Sobota et al. 2013; Soriano et al. 2014; Analytis, Sadler, and Cutcosky 2015). It
has become also a fundamental component in the implementation of basic applied research and
senior design projects (Ji 2015; Rajpoot, Gadani, and Kalathia 2016).
Although the low-cost microcontrollers such as Arduino are used in many control systems, but we
observed that the theoretical analysis such as modelling and stability are not generally done for these
 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION 655

systems (Instructables 2017). Moreover, the research done to use Arduino-based projects in teaching
control theory for undergraduate students concentrated only on the implementation of the PID con-
troller on specific systems such as robots (Analytis, Sadler, and Cutcosky 2015; Candelas et al. 2015) or
servo motors (Barber, Horra, and Crespo 2013). Therefore, no procedures were suggested to allow the
students to develop their own systems and think about the necessary components that are needed
to implement the control theory on these systems (Sobota et al. 2013; Soriano et al. 2014).
In the paper, we present our experience in conducting Arduino-based projects and how we used
them to support the teaching of the automatic control. We have integrated the design term project
in the course such that it supports all the course subjects which can be considered as the main contri-
bution in our work. The students have to develop the mathematical modelling of their physical system,
identify its parameters, study the stability, design the controller and implement this controller on this
physical system. Moreover, they can realise the difference between the theoretical analysis and the
practical issues. It is worth mentioning that we have developed a well-established system that we
were able to apply it successfully and continuously with a systematic way during the last two years.
Also, we could overcome the problems which are usually associated with this kind of projects such
as the financial support, the shortage of time and the difficulty in acquiring the components.
The paper is organised as follows: the project procedure is given in Section 2, followed by the
assessment method in Section 3. Finally, the conclusion and the future work are presented in
Section 4.

2. Projects procedure
The procedure followed to choose and implement the projects is shown in the chart of Figure 2 which
can be considered as an implementation of the CDIO cycle (Pee and Leong 2005). It starts by selecting
a physical system by the student (Conceive stage), then designing the physical system from scratch
and designing the control algorithm for this system (Design stage), followed by building the designed
system and implementing the controller on it through the Arduino microcontroller (Implement
stage), and finally running the system and studying the effect of controller gains on the system per-
formance (Operate stage).
Actually, the idea of implementing practical control projects is initiated by the instructor in the first
lecture after showing some real feedback control systems to the students. In order to encourage the
students to participate effectively, a good percentage of marks should be allocated to the project
since it will take a considerable amount of time and effort from the students. The general instructions
of the projects are distributed to the students who should form teams. Each team which consists of
two or three students is required to do the following:

(1) Propose a real system that can be controlled by the PID controller.
(2) Build this system physically.
(3) Develop a mathematical model for the system and estimate the numerical values of its
parameters.
(4) Study the system behaviour using the root locus and the frequency response techniques.
(5) Design a feedback controller to improve the system behaviour.
(6) Implement the designed controller on the physical system.
(7) Submit a professional technical report that documents all the process.

The report should contain the following sections:

(1) Abstract.
(2) System description (system components, how they are integrated, … etc.).
(3) Mathematical modelling (equations that describe the system with the necessary assumptions
and estimation of the numerical values of the system parameters.
656 H.M. OMAR

Figure 2. Project procedure flow chart.

 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION 657

(4) Controller design.

(5) The experimental work.
(6) Results and discussion.
(7) Conclusion.

The project marks are 10% which are distributed as follows:

(1) Theoretical study 30%.

(2) Experimental work 30%.
(3) Report 20%.
(4) Presentation 20%.

After one week from initialising the control projects, we devoted one lecture to conduct brainstorm-
ing to generate a list of projects which can be implemented according to the following procedure:

(1) Every student should prepare a list of projects which he can obtain from searching the internet or
discussion with people in his society. It is emphasised that the projects should have real-life appli-
cations and it can be used to solve the local community problems.

Table 2. List of the progress reports.

Progress report Due date Contents
1. Project One week after assigning the projects to the teams. 1. Title of the project.
description. 2. Description of the project.
3. The real-life applications for the project.
4. The components needed to implement
the project.

2. Mathematical After finishing the modelling part. 1. Identifying the inputs and the outputs of
modelling. the system.
2. Developing the mathematical model of
the system.
3. Obtaining the transfer function.
4. Estimating the values of the system
parameters.

3. Stability and time After stability and time response analysis. 1. Check the system stability.
response. 2. Plot the time response for the open-loop
system.
3. Plot the root locus for the system.

4. Controller design. After finishing the PID controller design using the root 1. Specify the desired response.
locus technique. 2. Design PID controller based on the desired
response.
3. Conduct a study about the effect of
variation of the PID gains on the system
response.

5. Final report. At the last lecture in the course when a public
presentation of the projects is held. Department faculty
members are invited to attend and discuss the projects
with the students.
1. Refined version for all the progress
reports.
2. Description of the experimental system.
3. Identification of the system parameters
experimentally.
4. Results of the implementation of the
designed PID controller on the physical
system.
5. Effects of varying the controller gains on
the response of the physical system.
6. Conclusion.
658 H.M. OMAR

Figure 3. Control projects workshops.

(2) Each team of students has to hold a meeting and use the boggle and affinity methods to delete
the repeated ideas and end with a unique list of their suggested projects.
(3) The boggle method is repeated by the instructor with all teams. After that, the titles of the unre-
peated suggested projects by all the teams are written on the board.
(4) A group discussion is held about these projects. In this step, more ideas can be generated from
this discussion. Then, a short list is obtained by keeping only the projects which can be
implemented within the available time and resources. The chosen projects should have a
simple structure. Moreover, it is recommended that the chosen projects have the ability to
serve the local community in Qassim region.
(5) The final projects are assigned to the teams according to their preferences.

After this step, the students should start working on their projects theoretically and experimentally.
Each team should submit progress reports to document their findings and the analysis of their pro-
jects. These progress reports are listed in Table 2.
During the execution of the projects, many workshops were held to guide the students in con-
structing the physical system, assembling the system components, implementing the controller
and testing the integrated system, Figure 3. During the first workshop, an introduction to Arduino
was presented with simple applications such as fading the light of a led and turning it on and off.
Then the students were guided to check the internet and YouTube for more tutorial about
Arduino microcontroller and its applications in automatic control. After constructing the system
and installing the sensors and the actuator, another workshop was dedicated to the implementation
of the PID algorithm on Arduino. After implementing the controller successfully, another workshop
was held to obtain the response of the closed-loop system and the effect of the PID gains on the
 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION 659

Table 3. List of the implemented projects.

No Project title Function Reference Feedback sensor Actuator The physical system
1 Smart mug Keep the The desired Thermocouple 12 V Thermo-
temperature of temperature of the electric
the fluid inside fluid which can be cooler
a mug at a cold juice or hot tea Peltier
certain module
temperature
2 Wind Direct a small The direction of the Encoder installed in DC Motor
direction wind turbine to wind, which is the DC motor
control the direction of obtained from a
the wind wind direction
sensor

3 Goalkeeper Move a The position of the Encoder installed in DC Motor

goalkeeper to ball which is the DC Motor
the location of obtained from the
the ball PixyR camera.

4 Speed Control the speed The reference speed Encoder installed in DC Motor
control of of the is determined the DC Motor
windshield windshield based on the
wiper wiper amount of rain
according to which is obtained
the amount of from a rain sensor.
rain
5 Water-saving Control the The reference is the Encoder installed in DC Motor
system amount of desired amount of the DC Motor
water running water from the
from a valve valve which is
related to the
distance of the
person hand from
the valve. This
distance is obtained
from an ultrasound
sensor
6 Ball and Put a ball at a The desired position Ultrasound sensor Servomotor
beam certain position of the ball on the to measure the
on a beam beam actual position of
the ball on the
beam.

7 Balancing Keep Two- The angle of the robot MUP6050 Chip Two DC
robot wheeled robot with the vertical which has three motors
upright position accelerometers
and three
Gyroscopes.

8 Vertical Control the The desired distance Ultrasound sensor. Four

distance vertical between the brushless
control of distance quadcopter and the DC motors
quadcopter between object under it
quadcopter and
any object
under it
660 H.M. OMAR

Table 4. Grades statistics during the last seven semesters.

Semesters
Before implementing the
new approach After implementing the new approach
Fall 2014 Spring 2015 Fall 2015 Spring 2016 Summer 2016 Fall 2016 Spring 2017
Item description (351) (352) (361) (362) (363) (371) (372)
Number of 36 34 18 22 30 12 16
students
Average mark 59 71 63 77 70 74 74
Standard 19 12 21 17 16 13 15
deviation
F Percentage 52% 12% 23% 18% 13% 8% 13%
D and D+ 16% 35% 23% 10% 27% 25% 25%
Percentage
C and C+ 20% 33% 30% 23% 24% 25% 19%
Percentage
B and B+ 6% 14% 24% 26% 26% 25% 25%
Percentage
A and A+ 6% 6% 0% 23% 10% 17% 19%
Percentage

Figure 4. Bar graph of the grade distribution.

system performance. It is worth mentioning that the experimental work did not go smoothly and it
was not straightforward. The students faced many problems which consumed a considerable amount
of time and effort from them and from the instructor. For example, in the goalkeeper project, there
was a conflict between the Arduino pins that used to drive the dc motor and the pins used to get the
ball position from the Pixy camera. Also, in the water-saving system, we had to develop a code that
returns the valve to its closing position when the system is turned on because the encoder does not
give the absolute value of the motor shaft position.
Usually, if the needed equipment and components are available, it is not allowed to duplicate
the projects during the same semester to expose the students to different systems with different
sensors and actuators. This broad range of applications sent an important message to the stu-
dents which is the ability to implement different systems with the same control loop and the
same analysis technique. A sample list of the projects that were implemented during the last
five semesters is shown in Table 3. Samples of the students’ reports that document their work
 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION 661

in these projects are usually uploaded to the college website and they are available for the public
(QEC 2017).

3. Assessment
It was observed that the new approach that includes an experimental part in the course project
motivated the student to discuss the control subjects frequently. Each team of students had to
arrange regular meetings during the semester to discuss their progress in developing the project.
This discussion with each other and with the instructor enabled them to improve their understanding
of the control concepts and their skills to implement the control theory on new systems that are not
usually existed in the textbook.
The assessment of these control projects has been done through the course quizzes, exams, pro-
gress reports, final report and oral examinations. The midterm and the final exams contained ques-
tions that are related to the projects especially the practical part. The discussion with the students
during the workshops and in the classroom indicated that there was a great improvement in realising
the necessary components in the standard control loop. The students got the ability to differentiate
between the feedback sensor and the sensor which may be used to generate the reference signal.
They had also gained the ability to model a physical system mathematically, study its stability,
implement the PID algorithm practically and appreciated the effect of each term in improving the
system response.
The statistics of the final grades for the last seven semesters are shown in Table 4 and Figure 4. We
notice that the improvement occurred in semester 362 after one semester from applying the new
approach. The average mark is 77 compared to 71 in semester 352 and 59 in semester 351. The per-
centage of the students who got A+ in semester 362 has been also increased to 23% compared to
only 6% in semester 352 and 351. Nearly the same trend can be observed in the semesters after
362. The percentage of F and D decreased while the percentage of the high-level grades increased.

4. Conclusion
A new approach in teaching systems dynamics and automatic control was suggested and
implemented successfully in the college of engineering at Qassim University. This approach
improved the learning of the main components and concepts of automatic control. It also gave
the students the ability to appreciate the importance of control in serving the local community
through the implementations of useful real-life systems like the water-saving system and the soil
humidity system. However, these practical projects required great effort and patient from the instruc-
tor. The students may not accept to do extra work at the beginning, but they became happy at the
end when they had working projects. They became proud of their work and tried to present it to the
world through YouTube.
Although low-cost components were usually used in the projects, the financial support is needed
to continue conducting these kinds of projects. Moreover, technical support, especially in manufac-
turing, is greatly encouraged to save the time and effort of the students and let them concentrate on
the control related issues. It is also recommended to establish a special laboratory which must be
equipped with the fundamental tools such as 3D printers to help the students in the design and man-
ufacturing the basic components of their physical systems
We believe also that some of the designed and implemented projects can be extended and
improved by the students then patented and commercialised. This will be concerned in the future
and the students will be motivated, encouraged and guided to do that.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
662 H.M. OMAR

Funding
We would like to acknowledge the College of Engineering at Qassim University for the financial support of the control
projects.

Notes on contributor
Hanafy M. Omar got his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the aerospace engineering department, Cairo University, Egypt and he
obtained his Ph.D. from the engineering science and mechanics department at Virginia Tech, USA in 2003. He is now
an Associate professor in the mechanical engineering department in Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. His area of interest
includes intelligent control, flight dynamics, guidance, evolutionary optimisation, vibration, and applications of renew-
able energy.

ORCID
Hanafy Omar http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6796-1186

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