Development of a low-cost platform for control engineering education

Abstract

This paper introduces a low-cost platform using the LEGO Mindstorms NXT kit and the NXC software for teaching control theories in undergraduate courses. The total cost of the kit and the software is under $500, so it makes this combination a very cheap alternative for establishing a control systems laboratory. The platform can be used to demonstrate: 1) parameter identification technique; and 2) cross-coupled control. The experimental result shows that the proposed testbed can be viewed as an efficient tool for the education of control engineering as well as C programming language, robots, and digital signal processing with a minimum burden of time and cost.