Real-time control platform based on free software and USB communication

Abstract

Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) and Rapid Control Prototyping (RPC) are extensively used techniques for the design of control systems. Matlab-based commercial tools for HIL and RPC usually are not cost-effective for most universities in developing countries, where research is limited and their purpose is mostly educational. With that in mind, in this paper we propose a low-cost high-performance control platform that features a DC motor servomechanism, high speed USB interface and Linux-based free software Scilab/XCos with real-time capabilities via RTAI.