Teaching Embedded Control Systems

This paper introduces a novel approach to building virtual laboratories of embedded control systems using TrueTime and Easy Java Simulations. TrueTime is a freeware MATLAB/Simulink based tool commonly used to simulate embedded control systems. Easy Java Simulations is a popular authoring tool that facilitates the creation of pedagogical simulations. According to the proposed approach, authors use TrueTime to develop the simulation of an embedded control system and then move to Easy Java Simulations to link the system to a sophisticated graphical user interface that provides the visualization and user interaction of the virtual lab required for pedagogical purposes. The combination of these two tools conforms a powerful, yet simple, approach to the creation of effective pedagogic simulation of real-time control systems