Industry in the central region of Taiwan is primarily made up of small and medium-sized enterprises, including manufacturing related to electrical and mechanical control. Movement component manufacturers, sequence control manufacturers, frequency conversion device manufacturers, sequence controller suppliers, and controller design manufacturers have long-term cooperative relations with our department. In recent years, improvement in wireless technology and wide use of chip design demonstrate multidisciplinary research and technological linking in the electrical and mechanical control field, the development of Industry 4.0’s core technological developments and IoT technology, and the introduction of artificial intelligence have raised an urgent need for talented interdisciplinary researchers to cultivate industrial manpower. The main development direction of planning in this group is as follows:
1. Application of Visibility Control System
In response to industry upgrades, this group will combine the advantages of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry and the potential of the information industry to provide technology for industrial automation control development, reducing costs and improving competitiveness.
At the same time, it also focuses on cultivating students’ technical ability to suit their future employment environments and creates a large reserve of technical and R&D experts for the Central Taiwan Science Park. The course structure is designed to integrate motor machinery, electromechanical integration, single chip, sensor, network communication, and basic electronics with the knowledge of hardware. They will also learn to establish an e-chemical teaching environment with interactive teaching, simulation, and experimentation through visual software design (Simulink, Labview, VB, Build C++). Students will be able to easily conduct experiments to verify the correctness of theory that they learn in class. Finally, with the goal of PC-based control and integration with instant control systems based on digital signal processors (DSPs), we will develop network vision precision servo electromechanical control applications.
2.Motor Drive Control
The motor is the source of mechanical load power. In the traditional and high-tech industries, all the equipment that need rotating or linear motion transmission function need motors. The applications of this technology include precision numerical control machine tools, electric vehicles, electric trains, rolling mills, textile machines, pumps, blowers, semiconductor process equipment, disk drives, and CD players. The present development goals of motor drive control tend to be automation, precision, labor saving, power saving, and miniaturization. Various types of motors for industrial or household use depend on the environment. The drive control requires functions such as acceleration, constant speed, deceleration, and positioning for the load. In addition, controller design, drive power level development, motor, and mechanical parameters are required. The technologies of automatic measurement, parameter identification, and online adjustment are also some of the key development directions of this group.
3.Sensing and Data Acquisition Control Technology
Sensing is an indispensable part of control. If the sensing technology is not efficient, controls will not function. The sensing laboratory and research team established by our department, combined with the data acquisition technology of the computer interface, actively cultivate technical talents in sensing and data acquisition, and develop software and hardware for the technology. In addition, the widespread use of the monitoring software, LabView, has successfully captured data for power, sound, and video. Labview can also support the department’s advanced application of cutting-edge control and power monitoring.
4.Application of System-on-a-Chip Technology
The purpose of the system-on-a-chip (SOC) design is to enable the end user to implement the hard interface and software algorithms in a hardware-like manner inside a single chip. A typical single-chip system, such as the rather popular 8051 series single-chip, does not meet the user’s need for system functions to implement a single chip because of the built-in functionality. Therefore, in order to reduce the circuit area and concentrate the required functions inside a single IC, the SOC concept was introduced. At present, there are quite a few products like SOC. For example, Texas Instruments’ TMS320F24x series of DSPs are dedicated ICs designed to develop motor control. In addition to exploring the design techniques of related SOCs, this development theme also develops the application technology of DSP and implements the spirit of SOC.
5.Advanced Control Theory
Pertaining to the smart control theory, smart control is the key item of Control Engineering Program planning of the Ministry of Science and Technology.  A number of professors in this department are engaged in research in this area and putting research on various types of motor control, power control, and distribution automation into practice, and the results have been very impressive. In addition, a considerable degree of control theory support is required for power electronics, power monitoring, power conversion, and solar energy development technologies. The development of this control theory will directly support the power technology to design a complete controller to meet industry needs and functional requirements.