The presence of robots is growing rapidly throughout the world. The robotics education community should follow the trend and modernize the tools used accordingly. The authors introduce here a Robotic Virtual Laboratory that runs in real time and covers four categories of robots, namely serial manipulators, parallel manipulators, wheeled mobile robots, and autonomous off-road vehicles obtained as a combination of wheeled platform with serial manipulators. The topics covered start with motion analysis, then control design, and end up with sensors perception, thus rendering this lab an essential tool for robotics and control engineers as well as computer scientists. The use of (i) robot simulation platform, (ii) real-time simulation, and (iii) cosimulation framework represents a backbone for the success of this laboratory. The results of a survey of students who participated in this pilot project are shown.

This paper presents a set of rotating machine models, namely synchronous, asynchronous and permanent magnet synchronous machines, with increased stability characteristics compared to traditional state-space based methods. In this work, the machine models are all derived using the state-space-nodal (SSN) theory. This results in machine models that are stable without any parasitic load or numerical snubber. This is an important improvement for these models in solver packages based on the state-space approach, such as SimPowerSystems or PLECS.

The paper considers a specific class of wheeled mobile robots, namely, mobile wheeled pendulums (MWPs). Robots pertaining to this class are composed of two wheels rotating about a central body. The main feature of MWP pertains to the central body, which can rotate about the wheel axis. As such motion is undesirable, the problem of the stabilization of the central body in an MWP is crucial. The novelty of the work reported here resides in the construction of: 1) the system controllability Lie algebra for the purpose of a rigorous controllability analysis and the computation of the largest feedback-linearizable subsystem; 2) a controller by input-output linearization of the system for achieving the desired steering rate of the robot while stabilizing the central body; 3) a controller based on the internal properties of the system to achieve the desired heading velocity of the robot; and 4) a controller based on the sliding-mode approach for controlling both the position and the orientation of the robot. The entire control structure that permits full control of the robot posture comprises three imbricated loops. Simulations showing good performance of the controlled system are provided. Preliminary tests performed on an experimental platform confirm the validity of the controller.

We introduce a novel control scheme for an anti-tilting mobile robot moving on an inclined plane. The robot pertains to the family of mobile wheeled pendulums. The challenge faced here consists in designing a controller for the robot orientation and its forward velocity, while, concurrently, stabilizing the unstable zero-dynamics, due to the undamped oscillation of the central body. An internal feedback control structure is proposed, composed of two imbricated loops, and based on an intrinsic dynamical property of the system, that would be referred to as the natural behavior of the system. Simulations of the controlled motion, using MATLAB/Simulink, are provided