A PID servo control system experiment conducted remotely via Internet

• Published in: Mechatronics (Oxford) Vol. 12; no. 6; pp. 833 - 843
• Main Authors: Parkin, R.M, Czarnecki, C.A, Safaric, R, Calkin, D.W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2002; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Computer hardware; Computer science; control theory; systems; Computer software; Control theory. Systems; Exact sciences and technology; General aspects; Multimedia systems; Occupational training. Personnel. Work management; Online systems; Robotics; Servomechanisms; Virtual reality; World Wide Web; Internet; Remote operation; Differential integral proportional control; Robotics; Remote teaching; Virtual reality
• ISSN: 0957-4158; 1873-4006
• DOI: 10.1016/S0957-4158(01)00027-7

The principles of robotics and control are widely taught in engineering subjects, however a common problem concerns the limited availability of expensive equipment with which students can work with, in order to acquire valuable practical `hands on' experience. The MuMaTE virtual robotics and control project on the World Wide Web (www) was launched to evaluate the suitability of virtual learning environments, the Internet, and multimedia technologies within an engineering-based flexible learning program. Students using networked computers can access this facility to study a wide variety of on-line course material and perform a series of interactive experiments with real world laboratory hardware. This paper presents an on-line experiment, which enabled users to successfully control and observe the response of a commercial position servo system. The development of the project web server, interface electronics and control software is also discussed. MuMaTE: http://mumate.lboro.ac.uk