Development of a graphical interface to simulate control systems using modern control techniques

In this work we present a software tool that permits the design of several types of controllers and the simulation of the final controlled system. This software can be used both in classical and in modern control theory subjects. The tool used to generate this graphical interface is Easy Java Simulations, which allows us to implement interactive simulations of physical systems in a quite intuitive way. Two different physical systems have been included: a position control system and an active vehicle suspension model. The user can choose any of these two systems and configure freely all their parameters. Also, an identification process of the system can be carried out by introducing a specific input and measuring the evolution of the output or other variables. After that, the controller can be designed and tested. Several configurations have been included in the tool: PID and controllers through state feedback. The second option includes the possibility of adding a state observer in case only the input and the output are measurable and an integral action to set the steady state. The graphical simulations offer the maximum interactivity since the user can change any of the parameters of the controllers during the simulation and/or the value of the reference input and observe the evolution of the system and the graphical representation of the evolution of the output. In this paper we present some details of implementation of the platform and the educational possibilities it offers.