Final year project ideas - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: gehan_s
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 22, 2013, 02:13:07 am
content: Hi all,For my final year electronic engineering project my lecturers suggested me to do a PID DC motor control teaching aid after rejecting my idea of a PID temperature process controller. The thing about this is it almost feels like a cliché (I guess so does the temperature controller). Do you have any ideas of improving it by adding some options ?I am open to other project ideas as well. My interested areas are analog electronics and control systems.Thanks in advance !!!!!!!!!

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2013, 03:49:15 am
content: your electrical engineering.... how much does it dip its toes into software or instrumentation where you are?without suggesting something else to start with, lets get creative, you have the designs for a basic PID controller, i'm assuming the 4 op amp model, or a small micro running a slow feedback loop, well mix it, up there is more than one way to set up a PID loop, about 5 different methods, such as integral squared over derivative, and possibly have a nice big knob to select between them to show off the different responses of each type,or perhaps give it a challenge, make it drive an irregular load, so that its always correcting, something like a non circular drive wheel, it would make you have to dip your toes into tweaking it correctly, and better simulates most loads,you could even turn it into a little game, print out the basic tweaking guide, have a stop watch on the table and if someone can work out the correct values, it releases a piece of candy?

author: daedalus
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2013, 01:10:30 pm
content: I have been working in a similar dept to yours for 12 years now, and have seen a lot of student projects come and go. PID temp controller is a bad idea, as is a basic PID motor controller. We see 1-2 of these a year, and they rarely are as good an implementation as what you would get after a quick google search. They are also hard to give marks to, as you can only assign marks for the students own work, and with literally hundreds of reference designs and tutorials on those two, its hard to tell what work the student actually did (above and beyond googling).With student projects there are 3 things to think about, firstly picking something that you can get the basics of working quickly is a good idea (so if something goes wrong you will always have a demo, even if its not the full functionality). I see students every year who fail to do a demo because of this. Secondly picking something that you can demonstrate your skills with, if you are good at board design do a complex pcb, if you are good at software do a microprocessor based project. Also think about how this looks to potential employers, as after uni this will probably be the biggest portfolio piece you have when looking for jobs.

author: kfitch42
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2013, 04:38:09 pm
content: This video seems like it should be a great jumping off point for a project that combines control systems and analog electronics ... not sure exactly what.Mag level model train?Put an LED on the magnet and do light painting?http://youtu.be/LaGv2FHS5zg

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2013, 05:25:23 pm
content: The key thing about engineering in the real world is that the technology is not the goal, the application is the goal.Hence with the example given, a "PID DC motor control teaching aid", the emphasis would be on the "teaching aid" part (a useful application), rather than the "PID DC motor control" (an easily researched piece of technology).It's not what you make as such, it's what you do with it that counts. Try to solve a problem in a novel way, to do something other people haven't done before. You have an opportunity to bring your own input to the project, to be creative, to innovate. That's what engineering is all about. Maybe that could give you some ideas?(You don't have to invent new technology, just apply it creatively and demonstrate your skills in the process.)

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2013, 07:32:27 pm
content: Throughout my academic career I saw a lot of projects which ended up being a demo of this, a model of that, none of which were ever really that interesting or useful. I always felt that designing a model to show a principle was actually a bit of a cop-out, a convenient way to try and get around the fact that designing a useful product involves an enormous amount of work that's not particularly mathematical or academic in nature.If you're studying engineering, it's presumably because you plan to work as an engineer (right?), and that means making stuff. Not just stuff that's clever, and shows that you've understood and been able to apply some piece of academic theory, but stuff that's useful and serves a real commercial purpose. So, if PID control is something that interests you, make something out of it that has a real world application and which could be developed into a useful commercial product.As an example: high end domestic and commercial coffee machines need to keep the water passing over the coffee grounds at the correct temperature in order to make the best possible coffee. Design a controller that can maintain this constant temperature while making multiple cups of coffee. Then build it, fit it to a coffee machine, find the problems, refine your design, and measure its real world performance. Show that you can make a whole useful product which happens to include some kind of technology, rather than just being technology for the sake of it.