An educational approach to the internal model principle for periodic signals

This article presents an educational approach to resonant control and repet- itive control, which are Internal Model Principle-based control techniques speci cally de- signed for the tracking/rejection of periodic signals. The analytical formulation is com- pleted by a set of simulations and physical experiments on a mechatronic educational plant integrated in a virtual/remote laboratory. The laboratory features are oriented to realize the limited performance of classic PID control to reject non-constant disturbances and, at the same time, to show the effectiveness of the Internal Model Principle for the rejection of periodic disturbances by means of resonators and repetitive control. Assess- ment based on students' perception reveals it as a useful distance learning tool. The laboratory is integrated in Automatl@bs, a Spanish interuniversity network of web-based laboratories devoted to distance learning of control engineering.