Virtual and Remote Laboratory for Robot Manipulator Control Study

Abstract

This paper presents a distance laboratory that enables the remote testing of coupled and non-coupled control algorithms in robot manipulators. The developed laboratory allows the users to use predefined controllers or design their own controllers using the Matlab-Simulink environment. The targeted controllers (designed by the users) can use S-Functions, which they can create themselves using C language; this functionality permits the creation and testing of complex controllers in an easy and fast way. This system uses Matlab-Simulink for practice processing and the Real Time Workshop Toolbox (RTW) such as real time kernel. The laboratory allows simple integration of new robots for control experiments. At present it has a robot manipulator with five degrees of freedom in Cuba, which uses two degrees of freedom for carrying out experiments. The laboratory has been used since year 2003 in identification and control theory in undergraduate courses in Universidad Central ‘Marta Abreu’ de las Villas and Universidad de Cienfuegos in Cuba, and in robotics and advanced