Using Virtual Twins for Distance Learning in Control Systems Labs

In 2020, amid the pandemic, the control systems lab for third-year mechanical engineering students at Hochschule Stralsund was changed to allow for distance learning, thereby reducing lab attendance time. The lab employed virtualization solutions from Quanser to conduct control experiments with MATLAB^® and Simulink^®, such as measuring the step response of a servo motor and designing a PID controller for the pitch of a 2DOF helicopter model. In this novel hybrid learning situation, each real experiment was paired with a virtual twin. Students conducted their control experiments off campus using the virtual twins, then reran their Simulink models later in the lab. This talk reports on the design of the hybrid learning environment and on the experience from the two semesters. Feedback from students clearly indicates that virtual twins may significantly improve the learning situation. The talk concludes with an outlook on the next stage of virtual labs at Hochschule Stralsund. In particular, the hybrid learning approach will be extended and rolled out to other labs. Furthermore, the Simulink and Quanser virtualization infrastructure will be hosted by the university's data center, thereby mitigating the dependency on the concrete PC environment of the lab participants.