Laboratory real-time systems to facilitate automatic control education and research

The paper is an attempt to interest the reader how to control real-time mechatronic systems under the MS Windows operating system. The authors refer to solutions that combine a software part and a hardware using the FPGA technology, together forming a comprehensive platform for the control purposes in the real-time. The main emphasis is placed on the authors´ own designs and constructions. Lectures and laboratory experiments must be conducted hand in hand. Such is the message to facilitate the Automatic Control education. Research works have been carried out in the Department of Automatics at the University of Science and Technology (AGH).