A MATLAB-based control systems laboratory experience for undergraduate students: toward standardization and shared resources

Abstract—This paper seeks to begin a discussion with regard to developing computer aided control system design (CACSD) tools to promote undergraduate controls laboratory development. The advocated CACSD design tools are based on the popular, commer-cially available MATLAB environment, the Simulink toolbox, and the Real-Time Workshop toolbox. This paper describes how these tools can be utilized to address several issues that are confronted by control systems educators including: standardization, budget constraints, and limited resources. Specifically, by confronting the standardization issue, the following advantages will be realized for laboratory development: 1) the required computer hardware will be low cost; 2) commercially available plants from different manufacturers can be supported under the same CACSD environ-ment with no hardware modifications; 3) both the Windows and Linux operating systems can be supported via the MATLAB base