The Future of Education

The study focuses on the design and development of a tabletop industrial motor control trainer with frequency inverter and PLC controls. The instructional trainer is designed to innovate and integrate an instructional device that controls alternating current (AC) motor in reference to the common application of controllers in industries, as well as concurrence to the Outcomes Based Education. The trainer provides competitive learning in terms of basic and advance motor controls in conjunction with the industrial requirements. It has the capability to integrate and utilize frequency adjustment for speed control regulation through the frequency inverter and provides option to use programmable logic controller (PLC) to program speed, sequence, and modulation into the motor drive. The trainer has the capability to test three phase and single phase motors following a carefully designed experiments based on theoretical topics stipulated in the course content of motor controls course. The trainer supplements academic instruction in the laboratory premise. Evaluation of the trainer yielded good outcome relative to the evaluation parameter established in terms of aesthetics, functionality, safety and reliability.

Keywords: Motor Controls, Frequency Inverter, Programmable Logic Controller, Instructional Device, Outcomes Based Education