Application Of Xpc Target As A Prototyping Environment In Control System Laboratories

This paper presents an example of application of xPC Target (product integrated with Matlab/Simulink) in an educational laboratory for real-time control experimentation. Equivalence between this environment and LabVIEW, another well known real-time environment for control, is discussed. Operating characteristics, cost, realization time, required expertise and implementation time are also presented. This example is realized on a classical system for position control using a DC motor. A complete control design process is applied on this test bench, from simulation to real-time control implementation. Result analysis indicates that xPC Target is a powerful environment for fast prototyping of real-time control loop as needed by undergraduate laboratories and for research activities implying fast testing of control algorithms on a specific system.