A tele-experiment on rover motor control via internet

Modern Internet and multimedia techniques enable experiments with remote hardware. This way engineering students can gather practical experience even in areas where their own university does not have the related equipment in place. The focus of this paper is on an experiment to develop a motor controller for a remote mobile robot. Implementation details of such an experiment are addressed with emphasis placed on the subject of tuning a PID controller for steering and speed adaptation of a rover. The complete experiment is conceived as a self-explaining learning unit on the web. The learning unit comprises material on theory, exercises to provide feedback to the student about his learning progress, simulations to study motor control effects, and finally the experiment with remote robot hardware. This paper presents software techniques to realize a robust system implementation, the educational considerations necessary to present the experiment material properly for the tele-education context, and experiences obtained during the use of this remote experiment in previously taught classes. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.