The Department of Mechatronics Engineering, College of Engineering (COLENG), Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) has taken quantum leap towards the University’s quest for global visibility with the assemblage and development of Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) Based Training Equipment code named FUNAAB-TK-0121 and FUNAAB-TK-0221.

The Acting Head of the Department, Dr. Adekunle Oyelami disclosed the giant stride during an official interface with the University Management and in an exclusive chat with FUNAAB Bulletin in his office.

Meet The Genius

According to Dr. Oyelami, the project was funded and supervised by Prof. Lawrence Kehinde in the Department while the assemblage of the equipment was carried out by a recent graduate of the univesrsity, Mr. Habeeb Mustapha and a final year student, Mr. Daniel Adeleke.

The Uniqueness

He disclosed that the PLC-based equipment “has key comparative advantages over imported ones because students are given the opportunity of seeing, touching and modifying all equipment components, rather than using them as black boxes”.

Layman’s Definition of the PLC

Explaining the feat of the Department in lay man’s language, Dr. Oyelami stated that “it is not that the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) itself was developed.  What we are saying is that we have an assemblage of PLC equipments that was developed.

He explained further, “it’s just like for someone to say he want to develop a computer system, it doesn’t mean that it is you that has produced each of the component but you can use your skill to know which component you can produce and have the requisite knowledge to put them together (assemblage) that is what we have as FUNAAB-TK-0121 and FUNAAB-TK-0221.

The Relevance to Us All

Speaking on the function, the usefulness and relevance of the PLC to the University Community, the society at large and the students in particular, Dr. Oyelami stated thus:

“One of the benefits that is going to be general to the whole University which has also been mentioned by the Vice-Chancellor is the use of the PLC to regulate the pumping of water.  You may use a timer, meaning there will be minimal human intervention”.

He continued, “for example, the one that we are planning for the Department that will be completed very soon will work in such a way that anytime the water level gets to certain level it will switch on or off depending on what you programmed therein.  This will ensure minimal  human intervention and drastically reduce wastage”.

Shedding more light on the advantages and relevance of PLC to the University and the society in general, the Don stressed; “As a University, you can programme it to count the animals as they are going out in the morning or anytime because there is a number that has been programmed on it in such a way that when they reach a particular number that has been programmed you will be able to know that none of them is missing.

The Relevance to Students, in particular

On the advantage and relevance to FUNAAB student in the Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Dr. Oyelami beaming with smile said; “I am happy to tell you that with the PLC we have been able to set up equipment to train our students.  We have some courses that we are taking on partial automation and full automation whereas before now there was no equipment to showcase or demonstrate partial and full automation”.

Relevance to NUC Accreditation

He added “This is one of the requirements of NUC and until now we didn’t have it.  It is a landmark achievement because we are going to use it to train students and others in Mechatronics Engineering, not only in our University but in general.  When I first took the course, there was nothing to train the students.  We had to go to llesha where they have the automation line work station and now that the Department is preparing for accreditation, it is now an added equipment with facility because one of the reasons why we had interim accreditation was because we did not have enough equipment the NUC required us to have for Laboratory which must be on automation partial and full automation laboratory to show how critical the training in automation is”.

Dr. Oyelami disclosed that the PLC is rugged, durable, cost effective and users friendly.