Design and Development of Lab-at-Home Apparatus for Hybrid-Flexible Learning of Automatic Control Systems Engineering

Practical laboratory experiments are essential components in Automatic Control Systems (ACS) engineering education, as they address the psychomotor domain of students’ learning. As higher education institutions are adopting non-traditional learning approaches, one being the hybrid-flexible (HyFlex) model, where face-to-face and self-paced independent learning are incorporated, the need to ensure that the breadth and depth of students’ independent learning is comparable to what is offered in face-to-face classes. This work presents the design and development of Lab-at-Home laboratory apparatus that facilitates higher education students to perform hands-on learning of ACS in their own premises with MATLAB/Simulink software. Sample experiments are designed and results show that the apparatus is suitable to cover fundamental concepts of ACS, making it ready for future deployment in teaching and learning settings.