An Interactive Tool for Servo Systems Learning

  1. Aliane, Nourdine 1
  2. Pastor, Rafael 2
  3. Fernandez, Javier 1
  1. 1 Universidad Europea de Madrid
    info

    Universidad Europea de Madrid

    Madrid, España

    ROR https://ror.org/04dp46240

  2. 2 Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
    info

    Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

    Madrid, España

    ROR https://ror.org/02msb5n36

Book:
MATLAB - A Fundamental Tool for Scientific Computing and Engineering Applications - Volume 3

Publisher: IntechOpen

Year of publication: 2012

Type: Book chapter

DOI: 10.5772/46459 GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

Sustainable development goals

Abstract

Servo systems play an important role in industry. They are found in most automated manufacturing systems, machine tools, and robotic systems to cite but a few examples. Servo systems fundamentals have become an integral part of industrial electronics and other related fields in engineering, such as electrical engineering or computer disciplines. Servo systems topics should be extended to all engineering curricula [1]. It is therefore a major challenge to ensure that future engineers should be familiar with servo systems, and be able to analyze and control them.A direct current controlled motor (DC motor) is considered to be the simplest form of servo system, and is used as a starting point for understanding all other electric machines. Control of DC motors is widely taught in control engineering and robotics courses, and is commonly used in laboratory experiments as providing an excellent case study. The importance of the material is well-evidenced in many textbooks [2]-[5]. However, in most of these texts, servo system problems are highly simplified for pedagogical purposes, and the given examples focus on the linear parts, and do not take into account practical issues such as compliance coupling, trajectory generation, the wind-up effect, feed-forward compensation, or torque limitation.This paper presents an interactive learning module focused exclusively on servo systems. It is aimed at bridging the gap between theoretical background and experimentation, providing insight into fundamental concepts. The tool is based on exploiting interactivity as a pedagogical basis in teaching and learning activities. Although many interactive tools have been developed for general topics in control education [6]-[9], interactive tools focusing on servo systems are practically nonexistent.There are several works in the literature which deal with the use of Matlab-Simulink for servo systems simulations for educational purposes [10]-[13], but the tools presented in these works lack interactivity. The Matlab Central File Exchange [14] is also used as a source to search for servo systems educational tools. Several excellent demonstrations can be found, but none of them meet the criteria for simulating practical aspects of servo systems. It is also worth mentioning the use of remote laboratories, where DC motors are successfully integrated in remote experimentation platforms [15]-[16]. However, remote experimentation is currently limited to performing simple experiments, and topics such as the effects of disturbances, anti-windup, or feed-forward, are not considered.The development of the module presented in this paper is based on Simulink models used in combination with the Matlab graphical user interface (GUI). The choice of the Matlab platform is due to the fact that it is by far more productive than many other high level programming languages. Simulink, on the other hand, is used to easily model and simulate a variety of systems using intuitive block diagrams. Wrapping Simulink models within Matlab-GUI is advantageous and improves interactivity. This feature allows users to change parameters and view simulations without having to deal directly with Simulink blocks. Indeed, Matlab includes a built-in tool called GUIDE, which permits developers to design GUIs for Matlab applications.The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents the objectives and scope of the tool. Section 3 gives some theoretical background on servo systems. Section 4 describes the interactive module and shows how Simulink models can be integrated within an interactive Matalb-GUI. Section 5 describes usage experiences and gives some classroom examples. Section 6 describes the methodology used in evaluation and discusses the results obtained. Finally, Section 7 concludes the paper.

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Funding information

The authors wish to thank the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the National Plan R&D TIN2008-06083-C03/TSI “s-Labs: Integration of open services for remote and distributed virtual laboratories, reusable and safe”.

Funders

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