IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 57, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2010 3343 Power Engineering and Motion Control Web Laboratory: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Mechatronics Course Andreja Rojko, Member, IEEE, Darko Hercog, Member, IEEE, and Karel Jezernik, Senior Member, IEEE Abstract—During the E-learning Distance Interactive Practical Education project, 13 partners from 11 European countries joined together to build a power engineering and motion control remote laboratory, which would offer 18 complete online courses with remote experiments and high-quality documentation, to students from the universities of all participating partners. The major benefit of this project is the possibility of sharing expensive equip- ment and lessening the burdens of technical and organizational problems. This paper outlines the project’s goals, organization, and, as an example, realization of one of the project’s modules. The described module is a mechatronics motion control course, which explains the most important aspects of motion control design, from modeling, simulations, control design, experimental valida- tion, and comparison between various controllers. The technical solutions, educational strategy, and realization details are given for the module. The pilot testing of the module was performed to assess the module and find out what the students’ personal attitude concerning e-learning and remote experiments. The results of testing are presented and discussed. Index Terms—Distance education, engineering education, mechatronics, motion control, power engineering, remote laboratories. I. I NTRODUCTION M ECHATRONICS and automatic control engineers should be able to identify components of the control system, to model and analyze individual elements, to design the control system, and to tune the controllers’ parameters in such a way that the system operates in accordance with given specifications. However all topics become much more apparent when considered as a theory and coupled with an analysis of the real-time operation on target system. Therefore, it is beneficial that students test their designed control algorithms not only by using the simulations but also on a real system. In such a way, the students also become acquainted with real-world features and gain experience and knowledge, which cannot be obtained by only performing simulations. Although classical hands-on laboratories are very useful and educational, they Manuscript received January 8, 2009; revised June 2, 2009; accepted July 29, 2009. Date of publication September 1, 2009; date of current version September 10, 2010. This work was supported by the European Community within the framework of the Leonardo da Vinci II Program under Project CZ/06/B/F/PP-168022. The authors are with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sci- ence, University of Maribor, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia (e-mail: andreja.rojko@ uni-mb.si). Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2009.2031189 have many limitations regarding space, time, and staff costs. They are usually fully occupied, and yet, the students still have to conclude their research within the time allotted for experimental work. The problems with traditional laboratory work could be avoided by using remote experiments and remote laboratories. During remote experimentation, students operate within the real system, although not physically present in the lab. Furthermore, they can conduct their experiments by access- ing the lab when they most need it and from a remote location which is more convenient for them. Remote laboratories are mainly used within the academic field to enhance classroom lectures, to share research equipment, and to supplement the learning process. In addition, a remote lab efficiently solves those problems occurring during the course schedule planning, particularly when educating part-time students, participants in the programs of life-long learning, and students from abroad or when working with large groups of learners. A variety of different remote experiments and remote labora- tories have been developed in the field of mechatronics and au- tomatic control [1]–[24] by using many different technologies [25]. These remote experiments include different objects under control, such as direct-current (dc) motor [1]–[11], inverted pendulum [1], [2], [14]–[17], [20], [21], magnetic levitation [1], [2], coupled tanks [1], [2], [13] [17], [18], helicopter [1], [2], [12], [13], [18], ball and beam [2], and others. In the majority of existing solutions, remote users can execute experiments, change predefined controller parameters, observe results as text or graphical views, and download the experimental results. Some remote labs also include additional functionalities, such as testing a custom-designed controller [1], [2]. Although remote experiments seem to be very useful and educational, a lot of hard work is needed when setting them up. Design of a course that is supplemented by remote experi- ments presents both educational and technical challenges. The educational challenges deal with the problem of how to design a course that presents the subject matter in a clear and interesting manner and in the form of e-materials supported by suitable remote experiments. The second even greater educational chal- lenge is how to encourage the students’ active engagement in the learning process and enhance their interest as the whole course is online and there are only occasional contacts between lecturer and learner. Most technical challenges arise from the problem of preparing reliable and good-quality remote exper- iments. The experiments are expected to be available all the time and cover most of the course’s topics. When experimental 0278-0046/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE