Design and implementation of a didactic cascade tank level control system

Abstract

Engineering students in the field of industrial process control usually experience difficulty in assimilating theoretical concepts and its practical application. Typically, a laboratory practical based solely on computer driven software simulation offers the course facilitator a simple and cost effective solution to demonstrate control engineering fundamentals. The use of commercially available educational hardware kits may provide an improved learner experience but are relatively expensive. This paper describes the design and implementation of a low cost alternative to introduce realism into control education. The didactic system consists of dual cascaded tanks, continuous level sensors, a pump, a regulated power supply and an Arduino® MEGA2560 microcontroller connected to a computer. An automatic control system is designed in MAT LAB SIMULINK™ and deployed to the proposed hardware system to ensure that the tank level reaches a desired set-point. Experimental results indicate that the embedded control system is beneficial in demonstrating practical process modelling techniques and satisfies automatic controller design objectives in a laboratory environment.