Artificial and real laboratory environment in an e‐learning competition

In this paper an approach to a study of multivariable system control is presented, where special attention is devoted to the implemented remote experiment. It has been realized through an e‐learning environment, based on the E‐CHO, Matlab, PHP software and a MySQL database. The e‐management system E‐CHO has been developed at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Ljubljana, Slovenia and is already widely used in different educational, business and academic applications, however, this is its first use in control design. The system is used for the communication with the users and the performance of the remote virtual (simulated) and/or real‐time experiments using a laboratory pilot plant. The environment allows testing, design and evaluation of various modelling and control techniques. The system has now been used three times as an e‐learning and e‐competition game in 2007/2008, 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 and has been accepted very well among the students. In students’ opinion the idea of e‐learning competition introduces a novel, alternative approach to the study, enables more freedom in work organization, increases learning efficiency and stimulates students’ interest. Since the presented system is very adaptable, direct extensions are possible in the sense of virtual and remote experiments with different models and real pilot plants.