Integrating modern instrumentation, control and information technology in the undergraduate laboratory

This paper describes the development and implementation of a computer integrated instrumentation and control system in the undergraduate instrumentation and control laboratory of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Pretoria. It describes the process plant, the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system, the communication system, intelligent and non-intelligent I/O devices and field instrumentation and emphasises the benefits and limitations of such a system within the context of the education and training of instrumentation and control engineer. The above mentioned system have been implemented on a miniature process plant in the laboratory, and although a set-up like this can not include all the practical problems encountered in a real plant, e.g. noise, interference's, environment influences, etc., it does give the student the opportunity to get involved in making real design decisions and work on a real physical plant with modern commercially available tools. This project has been done in cooperation with the Centre for Electronics and instrumentation at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique. The goal is to also implement this system at that University in the immediate future.