Abstract—Control engineering is an interdisciplinary field requiring knowledges on math, physics, circuits, sensors, actuator, and microcontrollers (for digital control implementation). It also provides users experiences in testing, simulation and real-time implementation. This paper presents a course demonstration project illustrating the essence of control engineering. The objective is to design and apply a PID controller to maintain the temperature of a power resistor by using Arduino Mega 2560. After device modelling and testing by applying math and physics knowledges, the open-loop system dynamics can be determined and controllers can be designed. By comparing the simulation and experimental closed-loop system performances, the difference caused by plant-model mismatch is discussed. The importance of integrating math, physics, and circuits with microcontroller technology in embedded control systems is also highlighted.
 

Index Terms—control engineering, microcontroller, temperature control

Cite: Jie Sheng, "Integrating Math, Physics and Microcontroller Technology into a Temperature Control System," International Journal of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 6-10, March 2020. doi: 10.18178/ijeee.8.1.6-10

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