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Control Systems to help care for something or someone

 

In this section you will look at different situations where an electronic control system could be used to monitor and care for something or someone. Please complete the activities further down the page.

Example 1
Automatic desktop
cooling fan

Benefits grown ups (and younger people) by keeping them cool and therefore more comfortable when working.

Example 2
Soil dryness indicator


Benefits plants and flowers
that could die if left
in soil that was too dry.

Activities

1, To help you choose a useful control project to design and make, copy and paste the items from the left hand side of the table below into a Word document.

Category

Control System Aims

People

Keep them comfortable

Toddlers or young children

Assist with their special needs

Teenagers

Keep healthy

Grown-ups

Keep them operating or working

Things

Prevent damage/spoiling

Products that are moved about

Prevent losing/misplacing

Products that remain fixed

Avoid accidents

Environment

Make tasks easier

Man made world - urban/towns

Keep/make them safer

Natural world rural/countryside

Keep them cleaner

Plant life

Keep in the correct conditions

Resources

Keep fed and/or watered

Pollution

Assist with their learning

Animals

To develop a skill

Birds

Record an event

Wildlife

Saving energy

Pets

Protect them

Protected species

Entertain them

2, Next to each of the items you have copied, pick statements from the column on the right that suggest how a control system could help them - You should try to add some of your own too.

Example:

Category
People:- Grown-ups

Control System Aims:-
Keep them comfortable, assist those with special needs, keep healthy, avoid accidents, make tasks easier, protect, entertain, inform, assist learning/ developing a skill.

3, For the two control systems shown in examples 1 and 2 above, write down:-

a, Who/what would gain from using them.

b. Why these control systems would be useful

c, Where and when they might be useful.

Choosing your own Project to Design

4, Now think up three different control systems of your own. They should be useful and appeal to other people. (To help you do this, use the table above and your answers to questions 1 and 2).

For each of these:-

a, Say who/what would gain from using them.

b, Explain why, where and when they would be used.

-Words that may help you do this-

Off/On/Up/Down/In/Out/Bright/Dim/Visible/
Dry/Wet/Moving/Still/Illuminated/Hot/Warm/Cool/
Informed/Turning/Quiet/Noisy/Hidden/Clean/Wiped/
Open/
Closed/Noticed/Warned/Accessible/Available/
Rigid/
Locked/Touched/Unlocked/Sliding/Indicate/
Amused/Happy/Found