Controllers and Compensators Design for Undergraduate Control Students: Testing with TCLab Arduino kit

Systems and Control Engineering is an engineering transversal area where it is especially important to validate the theory and learn how to implement controller schemes in real-life processes. Unfortunately, universities' Automatic Control courses usually teach only theoretical subjects, which involve lots of math, with little experimentation or validation of the actual processes. However, there are available useful tools like the Arduino TCLab kit, which can be helpful in the knowledge transfer process, as it allows students to test what they have learned. The work describes two principal aspects: a controller design methodology and the importance of the simulation testing value before the experimental tests. Comparisons between PID controller techniques and compensator procedure design and their impact on process output and final control element performance are made considering the theory and TCLab experimentation. The results showed that in this process PI and PID controllers have an overall better effect controlling the output than compensators. Despite the theory indicated that the PID controller is the best option, TCLab validation demonstrates that it has significant problems dealing with noise, leaving the PI controller as a better alternative.