Controls Course Gives Students Skills and Tools for Senior Design Project and Future Career

The School of Mechanical Engineering at the Purdue University has a rather large enrollment, with more than 1,300 students in sophomore to senior years. The School strives to graduate engineers with knowledge and skills they will use in their career paths once they leave the university. Providing them with the tools and equipment similar to those used in industry is therefore a must.

A great example of a course that adapted to the changing environment is the Automatic Control Systems Course. While the controller design techniques and theories that students learn are still sound, the course lab had to be updated to reflect the shift in the controllers hardware implementation. As a result, students learn controller design methods working with Quanser-NI platform. Since the focus of the course lies on the controller design, rather than on programming or plant analysis, the School has decided to equip the lab with several NI CompactRIO controllers that can be easily connected to a Quanser plant, such as a Linear Inverted Pendulum or Seesaw.

A typical lab setup as presented by Dr. Galen King, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University during the recent NI Engineering Education webcast series.

At the beginning of the course, students learn to design their controller based on the method covered in the class, using LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module. Once they validate their algorithm in simulation, they deploy the code to the cRIO system, using LabVIEW to program FPGA on the cRIO module. At the end of semester, students complete their project by implementing the controller on an actual physical plant - either a custom build one, or on a linear motion control system from Quanser. That allows them to observe the behavior of the plant and tune their controller. At the end of the semester the students can compare their designs in a contest. They even take Quanser Seesaw further, to make the contest more exciting: students have to come up with the controller to balance the seesaw as weights are added on one end.

The course has been very well received by the students. By the end of the course, they are able to design real-time controllers on their own and are quite happy with the minimal programming overhead using LabVIEW environment. Moreover, they are able to apply the control concepts during their Capstone Design Project - and several students are competing to use the cRIO controllers they became familiar with in the Automatic Control Systems Course.

That's exactly what the Quanser-NI platform is supposed to do - make controls engineering teaching more engaging, while giving students industry-related tools and build the skills they will need as professional engineers.

To learn more about Quanser-NI platform for controls, click here.

Enable Named NI Education Specialty Alliance Partner

Quanser's partner, Enable Training and Consulting Inc. has been recently named an Education Specialty Alliance Partner by National Instruments. The first-of-its-kind designation certifies Enable as a go-to partner for educators and researchers looking for assistance with integration of NI hardware and software solutions.

Using its expertise and experience, Enable can work with universities and colleges to make sure they get most out of their LabVIEW and NI hardware-based tools. The offering spans from development of comprehensive and engaging curriculum to product setup and training, making sure NI solutions are effectively integrated in both classroom and lab settings.

Users of Quanser-NI platform for control research and education could already benefit from the strong Enable-NI partnership. Quanser collaborated with Enable developing modern media-rich courseware for engineering education.

"Enable has a unique mix of control systems and LabVIEW experience," says Keith Blanchet, Director of Business Development at Quanser. "We are very pleased to partner with them to better serve our growing community of NI platform Quanser customers."

Congratulations, Enable! We are looking forward to bringing this collaboration to the next level.

MIT Students Using Quanser and NI Tools in Feedback Control Systems Course

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) undergraduate and graduate students taking the Feedback Control Systems course are quite familiar with the Quanser 3 DOF Helicopter system. They use it in the course to prototype and validate their controllers and connect the theory to real-world.

Within a series of lab modules, students are tasked to design roll, pitch and yaw controllers for the 3 DOF Helicopter using various techniques, including root loci, Bode plots, LQR, LQG and dynamic output feedback. At the design and simulation stage, students work in the LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module and LabVIEW MathScript RT Module environments. With the 3D visualization of the 3 DOF Helicopter provided, students can easily compare the simulation and the actual physical system.

To test the performance of designed controllers on an actual physical system, students use the Quanser-NI platform, combining Quanser higly nonlinear 3 DOF Helicopter with NI hardware (CompactRIO) and software  tools (LabVIEW FPGA and LabVIEW Real-Time modules). This solution significantly reduces setup time, simplifying connections and testing process so that the lab time can be used for teaching and learning rather than hardware testing. But see it for yourself:

The Quanser-NI platform used at MIT proved not only effective for validating control theory and designed methods, it also helped increase students engagement and interest. As Professor Jonathan How says in the article for National Instruments website,  "...numerous students spent extra time to participate in our optional competition, in which the helicopter is to autonomously traverse a virtual obstacle course. Since the completion of the term, several students have independently contacted the course staff due to increased interest in applying LabVIEW to other projects at MIT."
Read more about Professor How's experience with the Quanser-NI platform.

Quanser-NI Platform for Controls Demonstrated at NIDays Boston, November 5

We would like to invite you to join Quanser at the inaugural NIDays 2013 in Boston on November 5.

The full-featured technical conference is designed for research and academic engineers interested in aerospace and defense applications. It gives you an opportunity to learn about the latest technologies, best practices and trends for designing test, measurement and embedded systems.

See the unique Quanser-NI platform for controls education and research in action.
Stop by the Quanser booth 105 to see live demonstrations of systems using Quanser and NI hardware and software tools and learn how you can reduce the time required to design and prototype controllers and greatly simplify the hardware implementation. We are looking forward to seeing you in Boston.

Register today to secure your spot!

Quanser-NI Seminar at Georgia Tech Introduces a Unique Platform for Controls Education & Research

On Thursday, November 14, Quanser and NI bring their unique platform for controls education and research to Georgia Tech.

In the seminar titled "A comprehensive hardware and software framework for modern control systems research and education" Quanser and NI engineers offer a detailed introduction to the new hardware and software platform designed by Quanser and NI to:

• offer a smoother and more efficient process for a broad range of control system applications in research and education,
• reduce the time required to design and prototype controllers and greatly simplify the hardware implementation,
• bring an integrated workflow to the engineering labs: from modelling to analysis, controller design, high performance data I/O and real time control, plant systems, and end-user software environments,
• cover the entire academic usage spectrum: from undergraduate teaching labs for introductory control through to advanced courses and graduate courses, and ultimately to a broad range of research application.

Collectively, the companies' pooled portfolio of products is emerging as a more efficient and effective option over the traditional multi-vendor platforms. This seminar will provide concrete information, case studies, and demonstrations on how such an integrated approach to control systems can improve research and teaching.

Seminar program:
11:00 AM - Harmonizing the disconnect: the vision and goals of the Quanser-NI platform.
Presenter: Dr. Tom Lee, Chief Education Officer, Quanser

11:30 AM - The development process for a complex UAV application focusing on the new NI myRIO embedded platform.
Presenter: Paul Karam, Director of Engineering, Quanser

12:00 PM  - Complimentary lunch

12:30 PM - Accelerating controller design and prototyping in LabVIEW for principal areas of control research and education.
Presenter: Dan Nelson, Marketing Engineer, Controls, NI

1:00 PM - Developing complex controllers using LabVIEW and Quanser RCP Toolkit - detailed technical demonstration
Presenter: Amirpasha Javid, Academic Solutions Advisor, Quanser

1:30 PM - Open Discussion and Q&A

Register for the seminar today!

Webinar: Engaging and Effective Controls Education

If you are looking for ways to make teaching controls more engaging and effective, the new interactive webcast series presented by National Instruments is a great opportunity to explore latest solutions for hands-on controls teaching and get useful tips from your peers.

We invite you to join the webcast Controls, Robotics and Mechatronics sessions on Friday, November 1 to learn more about:

• NI-Quanser platform for controls education seamlessly integrating NI and Quanser technologies and engaging students by putting theory into practice.
  Register for the 30 minut webcast session "Create Engaging Learning Experiences for Students in Controls Education" starting at 1:00 pm CT
• Purdue University implementing NI and Quanser tools in a control systems course, enabling students to progress from design to prototyping in just one semester.
  Register for the 30 minut webcast session "Bridging from Controls Courses to Final-Year Design" presented by Galen King, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, starting at 1:30 pm CT

With your webcast registration NI also gives you a chance to win a hardware you can use in your control lab, such as NI ELVIS, NI myRIO and more.

For the full Engineering Education Interactive Webcast Series program, click here.

Quanser & NI Technologies Work Seamlessly to Ensure Fast Design Even Outside the Lab

At NIWeek 2013, National Instruments launched the NI myRIO, a portable, student-ready design tool that help students create real, complex engineering systems more quickly and affordably than ever before.

During the Academic Forum Keynote, we used the Quanser Qball-X4, one of our most sophisticated teaching and research products, to demonstrate the seamless integration of NI’s myRIO with Quanser products and experiments. Have a look.

The New NI myRIO Brings Out the Kid in Quanser at NIWeek 2013

What would compel 4,000 smart people to travel to Texas in August, only to braise in 40° C (105° F, y’all), full humidity heat for an entire week? Well, if you are an engineering enthusiast (AKA nerd) like me, you are attending NIWeek in Austin. Every year, on meteorologically the worst possible week of the year, our friends at National Instruments (NI) host a celebration of technology, and engineering heroism unlike any other event in the world. As per usual, Team Quanser was there to share in the fun. 

NIWeek has become the event where Quanser engineers truly strut our stuff… our digital dazzle… scientific sassy… mechatronic mojo. Not so much for some well-thought-out marketing rationale to clearly demonstrate the core benefits of our solutions, but because it’s the one time of the year where the engineers are unashamedly engineers… builders, explorers, rascals, tinkerers. 

Cameron Fulford, Engineering Manager, and Tom Lee, Chief Education Officer, both of Quanser, prepare to fly the Qball X-4 quadrotor, Quanser’s flagship UAV platform, with the newly introduced NI myRIO embedded hardware device.

This year, we sure did have fun. One of the key highlights of the conference for NI was the launch of their latest (and truly sick) product, the NI myRIO, a richly featured embedded computing platform that is pointed directly at students who are itching to break away from their desktop chains and make mobile magic happen. Unlike other hobby platforms, the myRIO is a true NI solution with all of the robustness and support software features that will make the difference between real engineering and hacking for students.

Quanser was one of the few privileged groups to get a prototype unit well ahead of launch so that we could get a head start on integration into our product line and maybe even develop a couple of demos in time for the launch. So a sensible company would have used this opportunity to create interesting demos on how the myRIO, when combined with our devices, can offer richer educational experiences. 

NIWEEK is one of the world’s most important engineering conferences. This year’s event featured the launch of the revolutionary NI myRIO device, a richly featured embedded computing platform that allows students to work outside the lab to design real projects quickly.

What did we do? We strapped it on to our flagship unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform, the Qball X4 quadrotor, and flew it around the conference, generally delighting people with the sheer cool factor and occasionally annoying people with the ear-assaulting hum of the Qball’s research-grade motors.

The Qball is one of Quanser’s most celebrated research platforms. Bleeding edge research groups around the world to validate complex algorithms for multi-agent unmanned vehicle experiments (i.e. intelligent, collaborative robots). Unfortunately, prior to this year, there really was no practical way to have the Qball work on the NI platform simply because there was no embedded platform capable and rich enough to do all the things that the Qball does… until the myRIO.

The end result, as we say in Canada was, “beauty eh?” It was truly impressive. Not just the fact that the Qball, powered by myRIO, flew crisply and in a well-controlled way, but the actual integration process was surprisingly smooth.

As we illustrated during our demo at the keynote, the work that NI has invested in a full range of multitalented express VI’s for a whole range of essential subsystems and functions reduced the development effort to a matter of days. We had been bracing ourselves for an effort of weeks (the UAV applications are some of the trickiest) but thankfully we were proven wrong. 

So where do we go from here? When can you buy a Qball V2.0 powered by NI myRIO? When can you feel and breathe the magic yourself? We have no idea. The reality is the Qball is an entire platform with options for optical tracking, and a wide range of experimental applications. It’s so much more than just getting it to fly. It’s also not exactly the kind of product that people buy for use by undergrads. But in the end, I think this was an amazing illustration of the true power and potential of the myRIO platform.

Specs aside, it really brought out the kid among our engineering team and got us to be more creative and ambitious. It was an exciting project. It was a fun project. Thankfully, it was not as hard as we thought. And in the end, it was the right thing to do. 

P.S. I wasn’t totally honest. We actually did do a sensible myRIO thing as well. We announced and demonstrated the upcoming Quanser Terminal Board (QTB) for NI myRIO, a device that quickly connects the myRIO to most of Quanser’s core plants offering users a terrific, new, cost-effective DAQ option for control systems. Yawn.

NI LabVIEW™ Users: Choose From 18 Rotary and Linear Motion Workstations to Improve Your Teaching Effectiveness

Teaching professors who use NI LabVIEW™ graphical programming platform have a great opportunity to build their control labs. The reason: a total of 18 hands-on Quanser rotary and linear motion workstations are now integrated with LabVIEW and related NI peripheral devices. This makes it easier to cover a wider range of control topics, expose students to engaging, hands-on experiments, and bring control theory to life.

The Rotary Servo Control Lab for NI LabVIEW includes nine experiment modules and 10 workstations, while the Linear Motion Control Lab for NI LabVIEW is made up of seven experiment modules and eight workstations. The courseware provided with the additional modules builds upon the fundamentals and allows professors to teach advanced control topics, including pole placement and LQR optimization, and advanced linear motion topics, including state-feedback and LQR optimization.

Watch this video to see how we help teach LQR optimization.

By choosing from this array of integrated workstations, you can incrementally build your own high-functioning lab—one that helps your students learn introductory, intermediate and advanced control concepts, and allows you to reach a new level of efficiency and effectiveness in teaching controls, robotics and mechatronics.

Choosing from the 18 available Rotary and Linear Motion workstations allows you to  incrementally build your own high-functioning lab. This lab can help you reach a new level of efficiency and effectiveness in teaching controls, robotics and mechatronics.

However you choose to shape your Quanser/NI LabVIEW-based controls lab, you’ll be exposing your students to hands-on learning that connects theory to real world applications, and you'll be helping them learn more deeply and effectively. 

Contact us today at info@quanser.com to discuss enhancing your control lab.

How To Build An Efficient Controls Teaching Lab With One, Flexible, Turn-Key Platform

The Rotary Servo and Linear Motion Control Labs are two of the world's most popular, flexible and modular solutions for teaching controls. 

Engineering educators and students who use either one find themselves working with a robust, optimized and integrated workstation that offers peace of mind, versatility and maximum efficiency. 

Both labs come complete with all the components and peripherals you need.  Taken together, those components and peripherals form a complete turn-key platform that will allow you to offer a broad, dynamic controls education.  That platform consists of five key elements.

The five key elements in our NI-based turn-key controls platform are Quanser's Rapid Control Prototyping Toolkit,  Quanser courseware and pre-designed VIs, the individual Quanser experiment and amplifier, Quanser's Q1-cRIO module, and the NI CompactRIO.

Quanser Rapid Control Prototyping Toolkit for NI LabVIEW™

In terms of software, the turn-key controls platform is based on National Instruments LabVIEW™ and the Rapid Control Prototyping (RCP) Toolkit, a new LabVIEW™ add-on developed by Quanser. Designing and deploying high performing controllers is an intuitive and straightforward process with RCP Toolkit. Combined with the LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation and LabVIEW™ Mathscript RT Modules, Quanser RCP Toolkit is a powerful design tool spanning the spectrum from simulation to implementation.

Quanser Courseware and Pre-designed VI’s

Pedagogical curriculum is provided with every Rotary Servo workstation and most Linear Motion workstations.  The curriculum covers a wide range of popular control topics. Instructor and Student Workbooks come complete with pre-lab assignments and in-lab, step by step instructions. These materials are designed to save time on course development. Workbooks and comprehensive student assignments are ready to use right out of the box.

Quanser Experiment and Amplifier

To help your engineering students assimilate controls theory and stay motivated, create a lab that offers many workstations featuring either or both the Rotary Servo SRV02 Base Unit and Linear Servo Base Unit, along with different add-on modules. This allows you to cover a wider range of control topics, from introductory to advanced, and expose students to different hardware. Several voltage amplifiers are available to support the experiments. Small, lightweight and portable, they are ideal for all complex controls configurations related to educational or research needs.

Quanser Q1-cRIO Module

Quanser’s Q1-cRIO is a C Series data acquisition and control module designed for NI CompactRIO. It offers a convenient set of inputs and outputs that provides all channels required to control all of Quanser’s experiments. Several other data acquisition and interfacing options are available, targeting both NI CompactRIO and Microsoft Windows® platforms.

National Instruments CompactRIO

NI CompactRIO offers an embedded, deterministic real-time platform on which control algorithms can be deployed, and real-world signals interfaced to via the Quanser Q1-cRIO module. Workstations for the Rotary Servo and Linear Motion Control Labs can also be based on Windows® PC controllers. 

Achieve a New Level of Efficiency and Effectiveness in Teaching Controls, Robotics and Mechatronics

Get Your Lab Up and Running Immediately: Both Rotary Servo and Linear Motion Control Labs based on this platform are designed for quick, repeated assembly and disassembly. Plug and play connectors and provided cables allow students or lab technicians to make fast, error-free connections when setting up a control workstation. There is no need to strip wires or solder custom cables.

Quality and Precision You Can Rely On: You can count on the workstation components to perform semester after semester, even when handled by the most enthusiastic students.

Ongoing Tech Support: Whether your lab requires months or years to complete, you can rely on support from Quanser and National Instruments. Count on little or no downtime since the same engineers who designed and built both Control Labs are available to offer rapid assistance.

The Right Partners: As academic specialists, Quanser and National Instruments are uniquely placed to help meet the challenges facing engineering faculties. 

Contact us today at info@quanser.com to help design your control lab.

Simplify and Accelerate Control Design with Quanser RCP Toolkit for NI LabVIEW™

There’s nothing more frustrating for students than wasting precious time setting up hardware and software when they should really be spending most of their lab time focused on high-level learning.  To help anyone working in the National Instruments (NI) LabVIEW™ graphical development environment to avoid that problem, we created the Quanser Rapid Control Prototyping (RCP) Toolkit. 

The RCP Toolkit is a key element in Quanser's NI-based turn-key platform for controls education.  When combined with NI's Control Design and Simulation and Mathscript modules, it allows your students to accomplish everything from simulation to implementation.

The RCP Toolkit is one of five key elements in our NI-based turn-key platform for controls education. When it is combined with NI’s Control Design and Simulation and Mathscript modules, it becomes a true Rapid Control Prototyping environment, a design tool that allows your students to accomplish everything from simulation to implementation.

Essentially, the RCP Toolkit is a set of three preconfigured HIL interface VIs - Initialize, Read, Write - that simplify and therefore speed up many common controls, robotics and mechatronics programming tasks.  

The Quanser RCP Toolkit is a set of VI's that significantly  speed up programming tasks and allow students to concentrate on high-level learning.

Simplified, Streamlined Learning

Using the Toolkit, cRIO and Windows-based controllers can be targeted using a single VI, and targets can be switched through a single menu. In addition, all outputs are safely zeroed when the controller is stopped appropriately or aborted unexpectedly.  A three-dimensional visualization of Quanser’s rotary inverted pendulum control experiment is included to help students bridge the gap between the theory and practical implementation of the topics you are teaching. 

To help students bridge the gap between theory and practical implementation,  a three-dimensional visualization  of Quanser's rotary inverted pendulum experiment is included.

Adding to the speed and simplicity is the availability of Stream VI’s that add a set of protocol-independent communication VI’s in which communications are abstracted to two basic VI’s – Stream Server and Stream Client. Students can then switch easily between a number of protocols such as TCP/IP, shared memory or RS232 using the same application. Last but not least, the RCP Toolkit supports over 50 data acquisition boards from both National Instruments and Quanser.

If your teaching or research lab incorporates the NI LabVIEW™ graphical development environment, adding the Quanser RCP Toolkit allows you to significantly enhance its simplicity and effectiveness for everyone who uses it.

For software specifications and related information about the Quanser RCP Toolkit for NI LabVIEW™, click here.  For a demonstration, contact us at info@quanser.com.

Quanser Flexibility Deliver High Functionality

Dr. Tom Lee highlights the teaching and research flexibility of Quanser's Rotary line of experiments. The Rotary Servo Control Lab accepts a wide array of add-on modules, including the inverted pendulum module seen here.

A high degree of flexibility is one of the benefits that controls professors can expect when putting together a lab based on Quanser solutions. 

The reason: Quanser labs are composed of a small number of versatile, high quality, modular components and peripherals—elements you can easily mix and match to teach a wide range of control concepts and courses, from the most fundamental to the most advanced. You can also use these same modular elements to conduct advanced research.

Above are some of the Quanser add-on modules from the Rotary lineup.  This high degree of flexibility and functionality continues in our Linear, Mechatronic, Specialty, Custom and Unmanned System devices.

Watch as Tom Lee, Quanser’s Chief Education Officer, discusses Quanser’s flexibility from a unique location: inside the National Instruments (NI) Campus Tour vehicle that is currently touring North American campuses and demonstrating the functionality of some of Quanser’s and NI’s joint offerings.