One of the essential objectives of any undergraduate controls curriculum is understanding the frequency response,
its physical meaning, and stability consequences. In addition, the student should gain an appreciation for simple
system-identification techniques, and the relationship between frequency response and the system complex plane pole-zero
map. These skills allow the student to analyze "black box" systems. With these objectives in mind, the authors have
developed a system-identification experiment using commercially-available physical plants and digital computer
controllers. This paper outlines the present course background, lesson objectives, data collection and reduction
techniques for a system identification laboratory taught in the introductory system dynamics course in the Mechanical and
Electrial Engineering programs at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
|