Lab VI · Capstone mini-project design

Objectives

As set by the Lab Works booklet:

1. Select an industrial mechanism and define a complete technical specification for its electrical control system.
2. Develop a control philosophy identifying every controlled axis, its load classification, drive type, sensors and interlocks.
3. Size and select the motor, drive and braking equipment for each axis from first-principles calculations, following the methods of Labs I–V.
4. Build and run a Python simulation validating the sized drives against the specification, and present and defend the complete design.

Background

This capstone lab has no fixed parameter set: it is the practical counterpart of the Chapter 6 mini-project, given over entirely to your group's own mechanism. Depending on the mechanism, the simulation may be a motor and load torque-speed match (Lab I), a closed-loop process response (Lab II), a four-quadrant or S-curve motion profile (Lab III), a braking or anti-sway response (Lab IV), a multi-drive load-sharing scheme (Lab V), or a combination of these. In every case the deliverable is a working numerical simulation that predicts the behaviour of the sized drive system and shows that it meets your own specification.

Suggested themes

Mechanism	Simulation focus
Reversing rolling mill	four-quadrant speed reversal with inter-stand tension control
Cement kiln drive	constant-torque low-speed drive with auxiliary (inching) failover
Drilling draw-works	four-quadrant hoist with regenerative lowering (cf. Labs III, IV)
Web tension control (winder)	constant-power torque and speed coordination as the roll radius changes
Bucket-wheel excavator	coordinated cutting, slewing and conveyor flow matching (cf. Lab V)

Procedure

The booklet's five steps, with the names the checker looks for in code font. Keep them exactly.

1. Problem definition. Name the mechanism in mechanism and put at least two numeric performance targets in the dict targets.
2. Control philosophy. List the axes in axes, one dict per axis with name, load (constant-torque, variable-torque or constant-power), quadrants (a list drawn from 1 to 4) and drive. Any axis working in quadrant 2 or 4 also needs braking: how its energy is handled.
3. Component sizing. In the dict sizing, give each axis its P_required and P_rated in kW, calculated with the methods of Chapters 1–5. The checker requires P_rated ≥ P_required; your report must justify the margin.
4. Simulation. Write simulate(), returning two lists of the same length: time and your main quantity (torque, speed, power, tension, sway...), over a representative duty cycle.
5. Present and defend. Plot the results, answer the questions below the workspace, and prepare the presentation against the rubric.

Rubric

The mini-project is marked out of 20 (course overview, table 4): specification 4, control philosophy 4, component sizing 5, safety and reliability 3, presentation and defence 4. The checklist in Chapter 6's last lesson lists what each criterion looks for. The report the workspace builds from your work follows the lab report structure; add your block diagrams and sequence descriptions to it for the presentation.