An affordable build-your-own computer control system for electropneumatics education

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are increasingly becoming integral parts of many non-electrical fields of engineering, e.g., Precision Agriculture, Avionics, Bionics, Civionics, and so on. Modern mechanical engineering is nearly synonymous with Mechatronics, and more recently Mechaphonics, viz., study of mechanical systems controlled by mobile phone apps, has become popular. Pneumatics, or compressed air, and hydraulics are niche areas of mechanical engineering with many industrial and other applications, and their performance is enhanced by incorporating electronic hardware and computer software. Many of these systems are also good examples of so-called smart products and Internet of Things. In this paper, an affordable build-your-own (BYO) computer control system is designed and developed for hands-on instruction in electro-pneumatics education. Results of implementation of a proof-of-concept prototype system using low-cost components, open source hardware and free open source software, are presented to illustrate the practical utility of the proposed system.