An Interactive PID Learning Module for Educational Purposes

Summary, in English

The PID controller is the most common controller and it is taught in most introductory automatic control courses. To develop an intuitive understanding of the basic concepts of the PID controller and PID parameter tuning, interactive and freely available tools are important. A PID module for educational purposes has been implemented in JGrafchart, a freely available development environment for the graphical programming language Grafchart. JGrafchart includes interactive graphical elements such as live plots and it is possibile to create animated graphics, for example of a simulated process. JGrafchart's variables, for example controller parameters and modes, can be changed interactively while executing. The PID module will be included in future releases of JGrafchart with sample applications which can be used for example to demonstrate a PID controller live in lectures or to let students interactively change controller parameters and modes to develop an intuitive understanding of the PID controller and PID parameter tuning. The sample applications are designed for users without any knowledge about JGrafchart and can be used to control both simulated and physical processes.

• Author: Alfred Theorin; Charlotta Johnsson
• Department/s: Department of Automatic Control; ELLIIT: the Linköping-Lund initiative on IT and mobile communication
• Publishing year: 2014
• Language: English
• Publication/Series: [Host publication title missing]
• Full text: - 648 kB; - 388 kB; Download statistics
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.3182/20140824-6-ZA-1003.01669
• Document type: Conference paper
• Topic: Control Engineering
• Keywords: Control education; Education; Grafchart; PID control; PID controllers; Teaching
• Conference name: 19th IFAC World Congress, 2014
• Conference date: 2014-08-24 - 2014-08-29
• Conference place: Cape Town, South Africa
• Status: Published
• Project: LCCC
• Research group: ELLIIT; LCCC