Portable Hardware in the Loop-Based Laboratory for Advanced Control Experiments

Aldo Rafael Sartorius Castellanos, Jose De Jesus Moreno Vazquez, Antonia Zamudio Radilla

Abstract: The increase in the online educational offer of engineering programs at bachelor and graduate levels and the decentralization and increase in education coverage in many countries pose enormous challenges for getting students to carry out activities that link theory with practice in laboratory sessions. Virtual laboratories that allow the use of specialized software in remote computers or remote laboratories, which allow the user to interact with high-cost hardware or that require special facilities, have solved part of this problem. However, there is a trend towards using portable devices or low and medium-cost kits, which can be easily assembled and replicated by both students and universities for carry out practices in introductory courses of control theory. This work presents a portable laboratory with hardware in the loop that go further and allows to carry out classic, modern, and intelligent control experiments in real time and can be replicated by educational institutions at a low cost. The proposed portable laboratory has been used and tested since 2012 by more than 300 students in bachelor and graduate courses at the Tecnologico Nacional de Mexico campus Instituto Tecnologico de Minatitl?n in the subjects of Advanced Control, Intelligent Control, and Virtual Instrumentation.

Keywords: Advanced Control, Hardware in the loop, Portable laboratory