Laboratory Model of Thermal Plant Identification and Control

Abstract The real experiments play increasingly a big part in control education. We have been developing plants to be used in the classes for more than three decades. The thermo-opto-mechanical plant TOM1A represents one of the most successful products of this development. This paper presents ways of identification and control of a thermal channel of this plant. In our study programme on Automotive Mechatronics the thermo-opto-mechanical plants are firstly used in an introductory course on Automatic control to interact with basic problems of stability, performance and a plant identification.