Welcome to the University of Maryland's BAE Systems Controls Lab

We are located in room #3209 of the Jeong H. Kim Engineering building and host the ENEE 461/ ENME 461 this semester.

The Controls Lab helps undergraduate and graduate students from all areas of engineering understand the basics of control theory with a hands-on approach. Using teaching equipment from Quanser, Inc. and student chosen projects to demonstrate real-world problems and their solutions, this course puts control theory to the test in a truly interactive way.

Lab equipment we currently have available for student use.

Dual Water tank Experiment

The first system the students are introduced to. These stacked water tanks helps teach students about system calibrations, sensor limitations, actuator saturation and more. As an introduction to open and closed-loop control systems, the dual water tank experiment is a real "hands on" lab..

Heat flow Experiment

The second controls systems the students are introduced to. This is a self-contained unit with an adjustable blower, adjustable heater coil, and three thermocouples. This first order system lets student develop a PI control system that maintains the temperature at a predetermined set-point. System response time, steady-state response dynamics, time delay of a system and more are investigated.

Rotary Cart Experiment

The third and final system the students are introduced to. This cart has two position sensors, a motor and is the basis for a systems identification problem, tight control of a servo problem and the inverted pendulum experiment.

DAQ I/O card

Multiple encoder inputs, analog inputs, analog outputs, digital inputs and digital output capabilities. This card allows the attached computer to interface with other devices such as potentiometers, encoders, digital signals and more.

UPM module

Universal Power Module for the Quanser experiments and student projects. This is a 3-amp operational amplifier (op-amp) workhorse that provides the muscle from the DAQ I/O card to any load over 70 mA. This unit also has available proto-board space and +/- 16 volts (fixed) DC outputs for student projects.