Temperature control using a microcontroller: an interdisciplinaryundergraduate engineering design project

摘要

This paper describes an interdisciplinary design project which wasdone under the author's supervision by a group of four senior studentsin the Department of Engineering Science at Trinity University. Theobjective of the project was to develop a temperature control system foran air-filled chamber. The system was to allow entry of a desiredchamber temperature in a prescribed range and to exhibit overshoot andsteady-state temperature error of less than 1 degree Kelvin in theactual chamber temperature step response. The details of the designdeveloped by this group of students, based on a Motorola MC68HC05 familymicrocontroller, are described. The pedagogical value of the problem isalso discussed through a description of some of the key steps in thedesign process. It is shown that the solution requires broad knowledgedrawn from several engineering disciplines including electrical,mechanical, and control systems engineering