EFFICIENT learning in the engineering field requires a
mixture of theoretical and practical exercises. Therefore,
laboratory experiments play, and will certainly play, an important
role in control-engineering education [1]. During experimental
work, students become acquainted with real-world
features and gain experience and knowledge, which cannot be
obtained by just using simulations. Although classical handson
laboratories are very useful and educational, they have many
limitations regarding space, time, and staff costs. They are
usually fully occupied, and students have to conclude their
research within the time that is allotted for experimental work.
The problems with traditional classical laboratories can be
avoided by using remote experiments and remote laboratories.
In remote experimentation, students operate with the real system,
although they are not physically present in the laboratory.
Such a solution presents a cost-effective way of opening up
a laboratory for students 24 h a day. The remote users can
conduct their experiments by accessing the laboratory when
they most need it and from a remote location that is more
comfortable to them. Remote laboratories are mainly used
within the academic field to enhance classroom lectures, share
research equipment, and supplement the learning process. In
the majority of existing solutions, remote users can change
system parameters, execute experiments, observe results in text
or graphical view, and download the experimental results. In
addition to these capabilities, some remote laboratories also
include a booking system, which helps the remote users to
organize their time and activities. Currently, a great deal of
available remote experiments and laboratories come from the
area of remote measurement, while the minority of them also
covers automatic control. In this paper, only solutions from the
latter are taken into account.
Following one from the first remote laboratory that was
developed in 1992 by Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning,
a variety of different approaches have been proposed for
developing remote experiments or remote laboratories in the
field of control engineering education [2]–[10] and telerobotics
[11]–[14]. In many cases, authors have burned up much energy
trying to find a simple solution, where only a standard Web
browser is needed by the remote user, in order to perform
remote experiments [2]–[6]. In some other solutions, the remote
users must download a special program, thus enabling
remote control [7], [8]. In the majority of cited remote control
experiments, remote users can run an experiment and adjust
the process or controller parameters from a set of predefined
parameters. In a Web-based laboratory for a two-degrees-of
freedom helicopter [2], for example, the remote user can select
among four different predefined controller types. An interesting
and advanced remote laboratory has been presented by the
members of Siena University [3]. The Automatic Control Telelab
(ACT) enables students to choose a control law, change the
control parameters online, and even design their own controller,
simply through the MATLAB/Simulink environment. Using
ACT, the remote users can design a custom controller and
reference signal on a local personal computer (PC) and, after
successful simulation, upload it to the ACT server and verify it
against the real process.
Although remote experiments seem to be very useful and
educational, much hard work is needed when setting them
up. Designers must be acquainted with different tools and
technologies, such as the Web server’s operation, Java programming,
Common Gateway Interface script’s principle of
operation, and Internet communication. Because of this broad
but necessary knowledge, remote experiments are rarely present
as a supplement in undergraduate courses. In this contribution,
a framework for rapid implementation of remote experiments in
the field of automatic control is presented. Using the presented
solution, remote experiments can be realized quickly, easily,