Antoni Sudriá Andreu

A distance PLC programming course employing a remote laboratory based on a flexible manufacturing cell

The increasing necessity of engineers capable of handling the problems of the industry and able to face the technical challenges they will encounter in their professional career is boosting the teaching methods based on projects and real applications. The Center of Technological Innovation in Static Converters and Drives, Technical University of Catalonia (CITCEA-UPC) group, Barcelona, Spain, has introduced such learning methods applied to the automation field in a course taught for the electrical engineering degree and in some postgraduate workshops, making the laboratory platforms available through the Internet in order to allow the use of such practices in e-learning-based courses. The learning method is based on a flexible manufacturing cell, resulting from the collaboration between the CITCEA-UPC and Schneider Electric and its Training Center. The problem proposed to the students is the automation of such a cell with commercial programmable logic controllers (PLCs). The experience has proved to be positive, and the students have valued it accordingly

Shape and cross-section optimisation of a truss structure

Abstract This article presents a method for the identification of the optimum shape and cross-sections of a plane truss structure under stress and geometrical constraints. The shape design problem is defined by the unknown nodal co-ordinates and is combined with a parametric design problem defined by the cross-sections. The method includes a new approach to merge these two problems and thus resolves the difficulties that arise when combining the optimisation of variables of such different nature. The methodology combines a full stress design optimisation with a conjugates gradient optimisation. The results are compared to steel bridge constructions built at the beginning of the century, when saving material was of great importance.