A cost-effective approach for the development of an integratedPC-PLC-robot system for industrial engineering education

Advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) instruction is and is likely to remain an important component of the industrial engineering education curriculum. As new manufacturing technologies become available and as existing manufacturing technologies become more integrated, industrial engineering departments must continuously develop their laboratory resources in order to provide their students with effective instruction. While financially limited departments cannot acquire state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment, they can provide improved hands-on AMT integration instruction without major capital investment. By developing an interface box between existing LabVolt PLC trainers and Microbot TeachMover robots, the industrial engineering department at a major Northeastern US university was able to provide its students with improved AMT integration instruction     

Hands-on learning in biomedical signal processing

For 20 years, the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) has offered a graduate-level course on Biomedical Signal and Image Processing (HST582J). This course takes a practical, hands-on approach to learning about signal processing and physiological signals through the application of digital signal processing methods to biomedical problems. It is by all accounts a successful course, with steadily increasing enrollment and high student satisfaction. In recent years, we have instituted a number of changes in the course, motivated by our awareness of new pedagogical strategies and assessment techniques. The purpose of this article is to use HST582J as a case study, demonstrating how incremental changes can improve an already successful course and ensure that hands-on exercises are not only fun and interesting but also achieve the desired learning objectives.     

Development of a Self-Balancing Human Transportation Vehicle for the Teaching of Feedback Control

Control systems education often needs to design interesting hands-on exercises that keep students interested in the control theory presented in lectures. These exercises include system modeling, system analyses, controller syntheses, implementation, experimentation, and performance evaluation of a control system. This paper presents an interesting pedagogical tool, a self-balancing human transportation vehicle (HTV), for the teaching of feedback control concepts in undergraduate electrical, mechatronic, and mechanical engineering environments. Such a pedagogical tool can be easily and inexpensively constructed using low-tech commercial components and feedback control approaches. The effectiveness and performance of the proposed HTV system are examined by conducting several experiments on three different terrains. An education process, together with a pedagogical method, is presented to show how the developed HTV can be incorporated into the laboratory course. To increase students' hands-on experience and keep them interested in learning feedback control, this study also investigated how the enrolled students responded to this new pedagogical tool. This education method along with the HTV system is shown to be significantly effective in helping students to understand feedback control theory and practices, and also to result in more motivated and active learning.      

A web-based remote interactive laboratory for Internetworking education

A Web-based remote interactive laboratory (RIL) developed to deliver Internetworking laboratory experience to geographically remote graduate students is presented in this paper. The onsite Internetworking program employs hands-on laboratories in a group setting that correlates with the constructivist and collaborative pedagogical approach. This paper discusses the pedagogical and technical considerations that influence the design and implementation of the remote laboratory environment given the constraints of the special hardware and learning outcomes of the program. For wide-ranging usability, the remote Internetworking (INWK) laboratory uses de facto networking standards and commercial and broad-band Internet connectivity to ensure real-time secure interaction with equipment. A four-tier role architecture consisting of faculty, local facilitators, remote facilitators, and students has been determined appropriate to maintain academic integrity and ensure good quality of interaction with the remote laboratory. A survey employing a five-point scale has been devised to measure the usability of the remote access INWK laboratory.     

电机行业工业互联网标识解析体系研究

通过建设电机制造行业标识解析二级节点应用服务平台,实现了对电机产品的全球统一编码,每台电机能够得到唯一的产品标识,用于电机产品的识别和流通。在电机产品标识应用方面,通过标识解析技术与工业数据分析相结合,开发电机行业基于标识解析的创新应用场景,包含产品追溯、协同设计、供应链管理和远程运维,打造电机行业互联网生态,促进电机行业数字经济发展。     

Industrial Cogeneration?Insights and Observations

Industrial cogeneration competes for funds with new industrial manufacturing facilities. New manufacturing capacity or production modernization programs have historically received investment priorities over utility systems. Due to rising energy costs and higher percentages of energy-content in overall manufacturing costs, new interests are being directed to the potential for reducing costs and improving company earnings by having well-designed industrial co-generation systems. Methods and techniques for achieving the highest available returns-on-investment are presented. Equations are proivded for steam turbine topping industrial cogeneration systems which are formulated with the objective of achieving the best selection of system design parameters which have the highest possible returns-on-investment.     

A harmonic distortion control technique applied to six-pulse bridgeconverters

A practical design approach for controlling power system harmonics through the use of transformer connections applied to a distributed set of six-pulse bridge power converter type loads in industrial power distribution systems is presented. Some common system problems associated with harmonic distortion from six-pulse type converters are defined. A method for reducing harmonic distortion through the use of transformer bank connections to allow for harmonic cancellation is presented     

A Microcomputer Interfacing Course

A hands-on undergraduate laboratory course is described in which microcomputer hardware and practical digital integrated circuit design are taught in a motivating and educationally efficient manner. Each student in the course is given the task of designing an interface between an Altair 8800 microcomputer and an input-output or memory device. As a result of two offerings of the course nine input-output devices and three memory types have been interfaced to the system. The educational advantages and the results achieved through this approach to microcomputer hardware education are discussed.     

A new integrated tool for exercises on the design of electrical installations using a microcomputer

An innovative approach using computer-aided design tools to support the teaching of electrical installations through hands-on design exercises is described. It is implemented by an integrated package with all the built-in facilities which guide engineers/students step by step to complete the design of two sizeable electrical installations. The dedicated file structure enables students to get direct access to the building information, details of each type of load and the technical parameters of all the electrical parts required for the design exercise. The combination of full design, partial design and automatic design eliminates routine and repetitive design studies and also accelerates the design and learning process. Errors made by the user are prompted on the spot and the user's performance is evaluated automatically through error logs and a demerit point system. Simulation tests enable the users to visualize the performance of the installations designed by them under a series of loading conditions, and to experience any consequences due to the design errors.     

Problem-based learning as an effective tool for teaching computer network design

This paper addresses the challenge of developing techniques for the effective teaching of computer network design. It reports on the experience of using the technique of problem-based learning as a key pedagogical method for teaching practical network design within the context of a Master's program module in data telecommunications and networks at the University of Salford, Salford, Greater Manchester, U.K. A two-threaded approach was adopted that comprised a problem-based learning thread and a conventional lecture thread. The problem-based learning thread within the module comprised sessions designed to place the students in the position of network design consultants who are introduced to scenarios that have a high degree of realism in which a client has specific business requirements that can be met through the adoption of a network solution. In this way, the problem-based learning thread allows the students to develop their design skills, while the lecture thread uses traditional teaching methods to allow students to develop their understanding of key network components and architectures. A formal evaluation of this approach has been carried out and demonstrated a very effective and realistic learning experience for the students. Therefore, the authors propose that problem-based learning is an ideal pedagogical tool for the teaching of computer network design.     

Innovative communications oriented design projects in mechatronicscourses

Microprocessors are fast becoming essential components for the design of communication oriented products. The design of such products is illustrated by projects drawn from microprocessor design courses taught at the George Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. The courses' emphasis is on an integrated, multidisciplinary, concurrent design philosophy: group oriented working and communication skills; independent investigations of new material; and a viewpoint of practical, hands-on instruction. The projects emphasize a concurrent design philosophy where hardware and software design are simultaneously developed. The projects also emphasize low-cost components and user-friendly interfaces suitable for consumer product design     

A project-oriented power engineering laboratory

This paper presents a power engineering educational laboratory suitable for undergraduate and graduate students. The laboratory development is based on the new academic system, called “Institut Universitaire Professionnalise (IUP)”, initiated in France. The pedagogical approach taken is one where the students revisit previously studied material placed in a practical context. This approach supports the prerequisite lecture material and allows study of some practical issues which are best handled in a laboratory setting. The experimental format gradually puts the students in touch with industrial realities. The laboratory experience culminates in a project, based on a computer aided design (CAD) technique, where the student analyzes, designs, simulates and demonstrates electric machines and power systems related topics     

Developing Advanced Courses for Undergraduates: A Case Study in Databases

Computer science and engineering education is faced with the need to respond to rapid changes in a global economy while still fulfilling the role of teaching the fundamentals. This paper presents techniques for assessing the development of an advanced database concepts course for undergraduates that responds to an industry perspective of the technological advances in the field. Cooperative learning and hands-on assignments relating theory to practice are the pedagogical foundation for an advanced undergraduate course. An alumni survey illustrates that students perceived that the course activities and strategies enabled them to attain the course objectives.     

基于产业转移粘性电力系数对成渝双城经济圈发展的启示

制造业结构优化是实施制造战略强国的有效途径,以电力大数据为基础,从产业和空间上研究制造业转移的"粘性",为成渝双城经济圈优化制造业空间布局提供决策参考。从产业集中程度、产业发展阶段、产业规模程度3个维度构建产业转移电力粘性系数模型,并通过模型测算与验证,具体分析成渝双城经济圈规划四川16个地区34个细分制造业行业的产业转移四梯度区域特征、行业异质特征等,为四川成渝双城经济圈产业集群建设提供中心辐射策略、产业转型策略、产业迁移策略意见。     

机器人安全气囊引爆组件柔性制造检测系统

汽车安全气囊引爆组件机器人自动生产系统是通过一台工业机器人与注塑机配合完成。原料与注塑后的产品分别通过两套工业相机进行检测。通过可编程的机器人和视觉相机,操作人员可以从触摸屏上选择不同的产品型号,PLC会调用相应的机器人和视觉检测程序,以完成各类产品的周期生产,实现了气囊组件柔性制造的需求。     

The characterization of a clean room assembly process

This paper presents the findings of a cross-functional team that was in charge of putting in place the design guidelines for the future assembly line of the small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs). Keeping in mind that the factors affecting the characterization of an assembly process depend greatly on the nature of the product, the market forecast for the product, the production geographical location, and many other local and special constraints, we however, believe that a similar approach to the one reported in this paper can yield an acceptable set of measurements that can help the product development teams present more manufacturable products. The core of our work was based on a quality function deployment approach that included the construction of a house of quality. In addition to the findings of the team, we describe the progressive stages that had to take place, from gathering the factory customers' wants and needs to organizing the cross-functional team. We started with internal customers' needs for the ideal HDD manufacturing process. Our internal customers represented manufacturing operators, process engineers, product developers, and managers for all three groups. With a large group of participants from dependent functions that included cleaning, testing, assembly, product technology, manufacturing engineering, and others, we derived the clean room assembly process characteristics that are measurable and controllable to address our internal customers' needs     

An advanced computer code for single-tuned harmonic filter design

The objective of this paper is to present a novel approach for limiting harmonic and improving reactive compensation for industrial power systems using single-tuned filters. The unique feature of the developed power distribution model is that it incorporates both the filter capacity and resonant point as design parameters. The model also considers the detuning effects due to temperature and frequency variations, as well as manufacturing tolerances. The proposed approach was implemented as a PC-based computer code, and it was integrated with a user-friendly graphical user interface. The developed analysis tool was employed to solve the harmonic problems of several industrial plants, and the results all showed great improvements after using this computer tool     

Low cost hands-on training in microelectronic technologies

An undergraduate course is described where, through a number of innovative ideas, a wide selection of microelectronic technologies is taught with hands-on training at a relatively low cost. Examples include leaded- and surface-mount printed circuit board, thick-film hybrid, gate array, full custom VLSI (analog and digital) and integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing     

Modernization of teaching in embedded systems design-an international collaborative project

This paper describes the process of review, design, and delivery of a course in modern embedded systems, an international collaborative teaching project involving the University of New South Wales (Australia), Manchester University, and Imperial College, London University (United Kingdom). This project, being the first of its kind anywhere in the world, provides a learning environment that replicates the current industrial practice in embedded systems design in an easy and comprehensible setting, an environment where the processor, dedicated coprocessors, and software are all integrated to create a functional system such as used in sophisticated electronic devices, including mobile phones, Web phones, televisions, digital cameras, and personal digital assistants. Such collaborations are important in both reducing development costs in developing up-to-date, and increasingly sophisticated, courses and in addressing pedagogical issues that are common between computer and electrical engineering programs in all academic institutions. To assist students' learning experience, the course is supported with purpose built state-of-the-art programmable hardware and software development platforms, carefully planned laboratory experiments, lecture notes, weekly online quizzes, tutorials, and a companion CD-ROM as a learning tool. Since the introduction of this complete package, students' satisfaction, assessment results, and skills obtained through evaluation and assessment methods have improved markedly.