Innovative laboratory projects for a measurements and instrumentation course

A typical Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology program includes a 3-credit upper-division Measurements & Instrumentation course with an embedded laboratory component. There are three main sections for the course: LabVIEW programming with data acquisition, sensors and signal conditioning, and design of measurement and control systems. Laboratory activities mirror the lecture materials and are designed to reinforce the students understanding of LabVIEW and its data analysis capabilities. Laboratory projects, each consisting of one to two weeks in length, are completed by a team of students, and each team contains no more than two students. Labs covered in this course include the design of a calculator, modeling temperature sensors, and design of signal conditioning circuits. Various measurement systems are also designed, including temperature measurement systems, weighing system using strain gages, distance measurement system using an ultrasonic ranging module, and machine vision system using a USB webcam. Additionally, students design a conveyor control system using a mock-up of a three-station conveyor, and an instrumentation control system for automatically determining the frequency response of a lowpass filter using a digital storage oscilloscope with a built-in waveform generator. Several labs require the design of state machines. The intent for this paper is to provide a detailed summary of several of the above innovative laboratory projects for the course to illustrate measurement and control applications with LabVIEW as the software development environment. For each of the laboratory projects, this paper provides a summary of the contents of student reference materials, lab handouts, and engineering requirements. Project assessment results are provided, and recommendations are included to help ensure student success on each of the projects.