Through completion of an applied project students will develop an understanding of the hardware, architecture and the assembly language of microcontrollers in addition to the control of a mechanical system with a programmable logic controller (PLC). The subject looks at the applications of timers, interrupts and serial ports. Furthermore, the general approach in designing a microcontroller in mechanical systems will be studied. Students will use an Omron PLC to control a factory represented by four pneumatic cylinders. After covering the Ladder Logic programming language, they will move on to cover sequential programming and numerical manipulation using PLCs.