Virtual and remote experimentation with the Ball and Hoop system

Using Internet-based networking technologies traditional control laboratories in engineering education can be replaced with a remote or simulated experimental session. Thus, the way of studying becomes more flexible: the assistance to the laboratories is minimized. Accessing to the application students can make experiments and obtain results with a real plant from different localizations far from the university. This paper presents a complete virtual and remote control laboratory for experimentation of an oscillatory system: the ball and hoop. Using this application students can understand in a practical way important topics such as non-minimum phase behaviors, zeros transmission of the system, resonance, or to demonstrate control of oscillatory systems. The client-side of the virtual laboratory has been developed using the programming support provided by easy Java simulations (Ejs). The server-side has been developed using Labview and a data acquisition card.