Enhancing Technical Skills of Control Engineering

Students In Robotics by using Common Software

Tools and Developping Experimental Platforms
Amira Aloulou and Olfa Boubaker
Department of Physics and Instrumentation
National Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology, INSAT
Centre Urbain Nord BP. 676 1080 Tunis Cedex, Tunisia

AbstractIn this paper, we expose a successful approach of a

course project aiming to improve technical skills of engineering
students by encouraging them to use common software tools and
developing experimental platforms. The course is dedicated to
advanced undergraduate control engineering students. Only two
experimental platforms, among twenty projects, developed by the
students as part of the course are exposed. The two projects use
LabVIEW programming environment, its data acquisition
platform and a wide-ranging set of tools for analyzing, displaying
and storing data. The main objective of such education approach
is to produce qualified engineers who are ready for innovation in
research and industry careers, able to share results and
collaborate with international projects. Recruitment results have
shown that employers have more confidence in the technical
abilities of our students for creating new business opportunities
which could enhance their recruitment criteria.

integrates many thousands of hardware devices which can be

used with a single development environment.
Many prestigious universities and colleges are currently
incorporating National Instruments LabVIEW software as
teaching, measurement and analysis tool for student learning.
Table 1 gives a bibliographical review of the main applications
using LabVIEW programming environment in the field of
control engineering education.
TABLE I.

Disciplines
Control engineering

Keywords; Control Engineering, education, Robotics, Computer

Vision Software, experimental platforms, recruitment criteria.

I.

INTRODUCTION

National Instruments LabVIEW is considered,

nowadays, as the most professional software, among others, for
data acquisition, data analysis, real time and remote control [1].
The LabVIEW environment [2] contains a wide-ranging set of
tools for acquiring, analyzing, displaying, and storing data.
LabVIEW software is also used to communicate with many
hardware devices such as vision and motion control devices,
GPIB, PXI and RS-232 devices. The main characteristic that
distinguishes LabVIEW from other data acquisition programs
is its highly modular graphical programming language, "G,"
and a great library of functions [3], toolkits and modules.
LabVIEW environment is famous for its flexibility,
reusability, self-documentation modularity, multi-platform
portability, and compatibility with existing code and with
different interface hardware [4]. LabVIEW software is
distinguished by its extendible libraries and its multi-advanced
debugging features. It is also characterized by an intuitive
Graphical User Interface (GUI) and Multimedia capabilities for
future developments. Furthermore, it is possible to create
stand-alone executables and share libraries. LabVIEW

MULTI-DISCIPLINARY APPLICATIONS OF LABVIEW

ENVIRONMENT
References
[5], [6]

Robotics

[7], [8], [9]

Mechatronic engineering

[10], [11]

Aerospace and Mechanical engineering

[12]

Electro-Mechanical engineering

[13]

Electronic engineering

[14], [15]

Electrical machines

[16] [17]

Power electronics

[18] [19] [20]

This paper exposes a successful approach of a course project

aiming to improve technical skills of control engineering
students by encouraging them to use National Instruments
LabVIEW software to develop experimental robotics
platforms.
II.

LABVIEW WITHIN THE NEW CURRICULUM OF INSAT

This section discusses the introduction of the LabVIEWbased teaching/ learning tools within the new curriculum [21]
of National Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology
(INSAT) at Tunisia launched in 2010 year. These activities will
be introduced in the second semester of the second year offered
to the control and computer science engineering students. The
learning methodology, in this year, consisted of four stages:
An introductory learning period for the LabVIEW
programming language and Hardware environment [22,
23].

An Application learning period aiming at solving a set of

specific software exercises using LabVIEW environment
[24, 25].
A designing and developing LabVIEW project period
aiming to acquire knowledge by direct experiences on
experimental platforms developed by engineering students.
One-hour multiple-choice test: the Certified LabVIEW
Associate Developer (CLAD) exam to prove the student
technical competency.
NI CLAD Certification and experimental platforms developed
by engineering students aims to prove that students have
sufficient skills to create high-quality applications with
standard platforms. It gives employers confidence in the
technical abilities of our students to create new business
opportunities.
III.

circuits, respectively. The vision acquisition code and the

control user interface are shown by Fig.4 and Fig.5
respectively.

Figure 2. Proteus CAD for DC Motor control

EXPERIMENTAL PLATFORMS DEVELOPED BY STUDENTS

AS PART OF THE COURSE

This section exposes two examples between twenty

experimental platforms developed by the second year control
and computer science students engineering of INSAT as part of
a new course of the new curriculum.
A. Project 1: A Computer Vision System for Robot Control
The purpose of this project is to design and implement a realtime vision system for interpreting human gestures [26, 27, 28]
via LabVIEW software and its Vision tools.
As seen in Fig.1, the Vision platform developed by students for
interpreting human gestures is composed by a Webcam, a DC
motor, a dark support on which the hand is placed and a
LabVIEW User Interface for acquiring and analyzing data.

Figure 3. Proteus CAD for RS232 communication

Figure 4. LabVIEW Code for vision acquisition

Figure 1. Vision platform for interpreting human gestures

Fig. 2 and Fig.3 show the CAD design via Proteus software of
the motor controller and the RS-232 port communication

The DC motor can be either controlled by a numerical input

(presence or absence of the hand) as can be seen by Fig. 5 or by
an analog input as can be seen by Fig.6, Fig.7 and Fig.8 which
are respectively representing three scenarios for controlling de
DC motor. An experimental validation of the vision platform
for interpreting human gestures is found in [29].

In future investigation, such platform can be applied to control

the pattern walking generator of the humanoid robot described
in [30, 31, 32].
B. Project 2: Design and Control of a robotic arm

Figure 5. LabVIEW Control User Interface

The second project aims to design a 4 DOF robot and control

the robotic arm via an USB communication and a LabVIEW
User Interface. The robotic prototype is shown by Fig.9
whereas the design of test verification circuit via Proteus VSM
software is shown by Fig.10. Experimental platform, developed
by students, is shown by Fig.11. The LabVIEW User Interface
and the LabVIEW Code for USB acquisition system and robot
control are shown by Fig.12 and Fig.13, respectively. In future
works, our first objective is to study the structural
identifiability for model parameter identification [33]. An
experimental validation of the robotic arm can be found in [34].
In future investigation, the developed system can be used as an
experimental platform to test the gain scheduling control
approach proposed in [35] for the unconstrained robot or the
position/force control approaches exposed in [36, 37, 38, 39]
for the constrained robot.

Figure 6. Test Validation : Scenario 1

Figure 7. Test Validation : Scenario 2

Figure 9. Computer Aided Design of the robotic arm via Solidworks

software

Figure 10. Design of test verification circuit via Proteus VSM software
Figure 8. Test Validation : Scenario 3

ready for innovation in research and industry careers and

enhance recruitment criteria.
REFERENCES
[1]

[2]
[3]

[4]
Figure 11. Experimental robotic platform

[5]
[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]
Figure 12. LabVIEW Human-Machine User Interface

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]
Figure 13. LabVIEW Code for USB acquisition system
[17]

IV.

CONCLUSION

In this paper we have exposed a course project encouraging

control engineering students to enhance their technical skills by
using common professional tools and developing experimental
platform. Using such approach in engineering education
certainly help educators to produce qualified engineers who are

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