Remote Laboratory Design for a Control Systems Course: An example case of DC Motors’ Speed Control

The pandemic has severely affected the quality of education worldwide, especially regarding actual hands-on experience with the laboratory. Therefore, a remote laboratory is the solution to this issue. Controlling the speed of DC motors is included in the control systems laboratory courses syllabus in many universities worldwide. This study aims to develop a real-time remote DC motor control suitable for use in a remote laboratory. The speed control is implemented using TMS320F28379D ControlCard DSP and MATLAB/Simulink. The DC motor is connected to a host computer. Students can control the DC motor remotely on their computers and connect to the host computer using the TeamViewer. Unlike other remote laboratories, where most provide a simulation environment, the proposed platform can give actual hands-on experience. The proposed platform is tested experimentally and compared with the simulation results.