Moultrie Tech Student Crafts Multi-level Model Parking Garage
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Moultrie Technical College student Royce Bloodworth, left, listens intently as industrial systems technology instructor Lavon Miller, right, explains what the future might hold for Bloodworth’s automated parking garage system simulator which was created as a class project last fall. |
Going Up?
Moultrie Tech Student Crafts Multi-level Model Parking Garage
MOULTRIE , GA. What began as just a skeleton of a structure, built by former Moultrie Technical College [MTC] Industrial Systems Technology [IST] instructor Gene Lastinger many years ago, has come to life in the mind and hands of current MTC student Royce Bloodworth as a completely automated parking garage system simulator with an elevator.
Bloodworth, 25, of Moultrie, created a working model of computer-programmed magnetic switches and loads as a class project during the college’s fall quarter by means of a complex system of PLCs, or programmable logic controls.
“I just started thinking about what I wanted it to do and then wrote the computer program for it,” says Bloodworth.
Using PLCs the structure knows when the lots or floors are full and will move cars [in the elevator] to the next floor where there is an available parking space, says current IST instructor Lavon Miller. He adds that photo gates, or sensors, are used to tell the computer motherboard where the cars are on each of the four levels of the structure.
Miller explains that PLCs and photo gates are commonly used to operate traffic signals and many other electronic mechanisms in the world today. He adds that many graduates with PLC training go on to work for departments of transportation, most starting out with salaries from $15 to $22 per hour.
Bloodworth lacks one quarter until his graduation from Moultrie Tech’s IST program and hopes to work in the field of industrial maintenance.
Currently, the college offers diploma and certificate programs at its Moultrie, Tifton and Ashburn campuses in the industrial systems field in the specific areas of advanced PLC and human-machine interface training, industrial wiring, electrical and mechanical control systems, industrial electrical and mechanical technologies, and wiring and instrumentation.
Future plans for the simulated parking garage system Bloodworth originated include teaching future students to write their own computer programs for it and using it as a recruiting tool for prospective Moultrie Tech students at college exploration events in the community and at area middle and high schools.
For more information on Moultrie Tech’s Industrial Systems Technology program, log on to www.moultrietech.edu or call (229) 891-7000 in Moultrie or (229) 391-2600 in Tifton.
