Real time controlled laboratory plant for control education

This paper describes an experimental installation for performing several basic experiments in automatic control courses. The process to be controlled consists of three interconnected water tanks. It is possible to use just one tank, or two or the three of them adjusting the corresponding valves. The controller is based on a dSpace board that implements a real time interface. The control strategy is described in block diagrams in Matlab/Simulink, software that students are familiar with. They use this environment for the modeling, analysis and design stages of their control projects. With these software tools they can also configure the actual controller, implementing their designs using Simulink blocks. As they don't need to do any special programming or debugging, they can focus on the control items. The learning process becomes more effective if they can use the same well-known environment to implement the real controller.