Remotely accessible hardware-in-the-loop robot simulator

Abstract

In this thesis, a novel and remotely accessible hardware-in-the-loop simulator (HILS) is developed for the real-time simulation of a variety of robotic systems for on-site and remote education and research. In that sense, the thesis contributes to the first known application of the HILS concept in the field of robotics and mechatronics that is remotely accessible. The HILS set-up incorporates most of the crucial hardware that takes part in the actual mechatronics/robotics system, thus enabling a more realistic simulation of the dynamics and control than would be possible with computer simulations. Any given robotic configuration can be simulated by using the developed HILS set-up, thus enhancing the flexibility and repertoire of expensive robotics laboratories. Besides the establishment of the hardware/software of the HILS setup, the major contribution of this thesis is the developed communication method between client and server that enables remote users to perform experiments on the HILS setup at the UAF Robotics and Control Laboratory. The main communication code is written in C/C++ with the use of wxWidgets. The protocol used in this study is TCP/IP for the sequential and error-free transmission of data. The MATLAB® Engine is used to establish the link between MATLAB® and the C/C++ code. For data capturing, a code is written in Python® programming language, which is compatible with ControlDesk. Finally, animations are prepared using the V-Realm Builder for the data collected from HILS experimentation. The experimentation results are sent to remote users as mat files, jpeg files and animations. The developed communication method can be used with all systems using MATLAB® Simulink® and is not limited to use with the HILS system only. Several case studies developed remotely (via the use of the internet) are also presented in the thesis as remote lab experiment and animation examples.