Abstract

In this paper, an XML-based framework, known as RELATED, is used to build a remote lab for providing experience of control engineering on a servo motor using components distributed across the Internet.

This new approach allows different groups to share their hardware and software resources and to facilitate the creation of networks of virtual/remote laboratories. Keywords distance learning; PID control; remote operations; virtual laboratories Laboratory experiments play and will certainly continue to play an important role in control engineering education.1 One significant tendency in the field of control practice is the increasing use of virtual instrumentation. In fact in major production facilities, operators are often trained in plant operation using a simulation environment (instead of the real process) to drive virtual instruments.

What is obvious is that experimentation in situ with a plant or real object cannot be replaced by a simulation or training simulators, especially the sensations perceived by the student in the experiment.2'3 Practical education needs to be based on errors and irregularities, as occurs in mechanical, electrical or chemical systems, as opposed to the ideal icons and environments represented on a computer display.

One vital aspect of control engineering education is therefore that laboratory and practical work need to provide engineering students with a taste of real situations, measurement and instrumentation, with all their attendant problems.4 One idea is to allow the students to perform real experiments, in real time, on real equipment, but over the Internet.