AUTOMATION LAB

BRIEF INTRODUCTION:
The automation lab is a part of the mechatronics department that is
responsible for providing the students and faculty members with the
equipment required to learn and prototype large scale systems like
control systems and communication systems. This lab focuses on
providing its users with adequate equipment to work with
Programmable Logic Circuits (PLC). This knowledge and experience is
perhaps the most important in the industrial areas since most modern
industrial machines use PLCs to operate.

 PLCs:
Programmable Logic Circuits are used in industrial automation
applications to control machinery based for different tasks. These
circuits need to be programmed and can be used on different machines
as well, the other benefit of these types of control circuits especially
over the micro-controllers is that two or more PLC softwares can be
easily combined, thus being very helpful in industries where one PLC
may run more than one machine.

EQUIPMENT REQUIRED IN LAB:

As we have studied what students come to learn in this lab, we must
now study the equipment required in this lab to achieve this task. The
equipment that is currently present in the department lab is briefly
discussed below:

 COMPUTERS:
PLCs need to be programmed in order to achieve the desired task,
this programming can be done on any PC with the right type of
 software installed. the department lab is equipped with 6
computers for student use and one for the lab attendant, all of
these computers have the relevant ladder logic programming
software preinstalled
 PLC Trainer Boards:
After creating a suitable program for a circuit, Students must be
able to test this program on a trainer board in order to check for
errors and make suitable improvements before implementing
their program on a PLC in a project. For this purpose, the
department lab provides the students with a feedback PLC trainer
to help them learn the basics of PLCs.
 Programmable Logic Circuits:
The department lab also provides the students with different
types of industrial Programmable Logic Circuit boards in order to
help them increase their experience with the types of boards that
they may be using in the future. Currently, the lab has 4 SLC500
PLCs based on the RSLogix500 programming logic.
 Practical Examples:
To help the students understand the working of these control
systems, the lab is also equipped with practical implementations
of PLCs along with their machines. Students can study these
examples and experiment with them to understand the working
of these systems. These examples include an automatic football
patcher and a dual conveyor workcell.
 Hydraulics Units:
The lab also houses two hydraulics transparent models and a
hydraulics/pneumatics training unit to help the students
understand the working of control systems implemented on
hydraulic systems.
The Project at Hand:
We must draw floor plan of this lab in order to help newer students and
guests understand their way around the lab. For this purpose we will be
using a CAD (Computer Aided Design) software known as AutoCAD. We
will use this software in classic mode using the Command Line Interface
in 2D mode.

METHODOLOGY:
This project was divided into different steps in order to keep track of
work, let us now discuss the step-by-step procedure of drawing the
floor plans of the automation lab in our department that were
performed by me:

 Survey:
The first step of this task was to survey the automation lab in our
department. In this survey, I counted the total number of tables, the
number of computers and other machines and the number of
cabinets and chairs in the room. In order to take a rough dimension
of the room I had to improvise due to lack of equipment. I counted
the total number of tiles in the room in a row and in a column, and
then measured the length of one of these square tiles which was 1
foot. The total number of tiles in the room were about 28x50.
Converting this into feet, I got a rough dimension of the room which
was 28x50 feet. I then drew a rough sketch of the lab with the names
of each machine on its respective desk, I also took pictures of the
machines for later reference in making block diagram of these
machines.

 AutoCAD Setup:
So after the physical inspection of the lab, I started my work on the
AutoCAD software, but before I could draw anything, I had to set up
my worksheet according to my requirements. First of all, I turned on
the Command Line Interface on the AutoCAD 2020 software. Then I
set my units to feet using the UNITS command. I also set my
software on classic mode as I had already been accustomed to it.

 Initial Structure:
Once the AutoCAD Software was set accord to my needs, I started
drawing my floor plan by starting off with the walls. I drew the
outside walls thicker than the inside walls as they per the existing
construction. I also used the HATCH command to make these walls
prominent. I also added the columns in the walls of approximate
sizes at approximate distances as observed during the survey. I then
inserted the block symbols of the door and the windows using
AutoCAD libraries.

 Furniture Placement:
Once done with the walls, I started placing the different pieces of
furniture the lab. I started with the tables as they were the easiest. I
drew a rectangle using the RECTANG command and copied it to
wherever required. I used the same method for the cupboards in the
back.
I then started placing the two different types of chairs in the middle
of the lab. I took one chair from the library and then copied it to the
different locations where required. I then followed the same method
for the other type of chairs in the second row. And then for the
chairs of the lab attendants’ table.
 Machines Symbols:
Now I had to place the symbols for the different machines in the lab.
This was easy for the computers, which had premade symbols in
libraries, but the same cannot be said for the other machines in the
lab. So I had to draw these symbols and then made it a block using
the BLOCK command. I drew the symbol of each machine in a way to
distinguish it from the other types of machines but were still a close
representation of the original shape of the machine to make it easier
to recognize each machine by looking at its block diagram. I then
placed these symbols on their respective positions.

 Legend:
I then drew the legend of the symbols that I used for the clarity of
the observer so that the one can read the floor plan easily.

DISCUSSION:
Although I had used this software before in AutoCAD Lab, this was
the first time that I used this software to draw any floor plan. So I
had to do a lot of research to see how floor plans were made. I had
to learn how to use block libraries in AutoCAD and even draw new
symbols in it and save them as blocks. I learned how I could use the
hatch command to represent walls and columns. As a byproduct, I
also got to learn some new things about PLCs and their
programming.

 Difficulties:
Most of the project wet smoothly, but I did have difficulties in the
use of blocks as first I had to learn how to use pre made blocks from
the symbols library in AutoCAD, and then draw my own blocks to
represent the machines in the lab.