Digital and analog control projects using Lego bricks

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to determine if inexpensive "Lego" bricks could be used to construct digital and analog laboratory control systems, and (2) to control four projects using analog circuitry and using a Motorola 8 bit micro-controller. Four non-linear projects were designed, built, debugged, and demonstrated to be controllable. The projects were The Inverted Pendulum, The Magnetic Levitation, The Ball-on-the Beam Balancer, and The Rotary Inverted Pendulum. The results of this study proved that, "Lego" bricks could be used for many laboratory experiments because they are easily modified to fit required applications.