All under Control – Reutlingen University students develop new remote lab experiment

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Under the supervision of project head Prof. Dr.-Ing. Antonio Notholt, Mechatronics master’s students Jonas Fritz and Henri Gerstadt have developed and implemented a practical experiment in the field of control engineering.

The experiment deals with a standard problem: controlling a ball’s altitude in a tube by manipulating the velocity (or intensity) of an air flow. After several months of engineering the hard- and software, the floating ball experiment is now ready for remote access. Via a newly-developed web application interface, authorized users are capable of digitally controlling the experiment parameters from their homes. After carrying out the practical assignment and completion of a quiz, a report of the findings is automatically generated.  The concept comprises a security architecture to ensure the integrity of the underlying IT systems, authenticity verification of reports, and functional safety in the laboratories.

The floating ball experiment along with two more remotely teleoperated experiments will be integrated into the control engineering laboratory education of the mechatronics study programmes at Reutlingen University and the NTU Dnipro Polytechnic.