Web-based remote access real-time Mechatronics Lab development basec description

The NCSU ECE Mechatronics lab allows students to design two PID controllers. Each PID controller controls a dc motor driving each wheel of an Unmanned Vehicle (UV) from point A to point B along a predefined path. In this project, the proposed web-based remote access lab will enable students to implement the PID controllers gains, and test with the UV from remote locations through a web-browser as shown in Fig.1. The gains of the PID controllers can be downloaded to the UV wirelessly. The resultant UV performance are sent back to students as motion pictures and graphs in real time. 

Three major system component development

UV (Unmanned Vehicle) - This is a small vehicle controlled by a Handy board as depicted in fig. 3. The core of the handy board is a Motorola 68HC11 microcontroller.  UV can be programmed to use algorithm to track the black color path using the data received from infrared sensors. In this project, the handy board also connects with a wireless module that can communicate with the Server PC. The wireless module allows the control algorithm on the UV to be adjusted remotely.

Server PC -  With wireless module and Wireless Commander program (depicted in Fig.4-5), the Server PC will receive the information from a user on a Client PC, and then forward that information wirelessly to the UV when the user needs to change some control parameters.

Client PC - This PC runs a web-browser and Java client program as depicted in Fig 6. A user can perform  the experiment by changing control parameters, and evaluates the results from motion pictures and graphs.