Klaus Weichinger

Today, nonlinear model-based control methods are essential part in different control applications. To provide a complete open framework for educational purposes this contribution extends common open source software (SCILAB/SCICOS, MAXIMA and rt-preempt Linux real-time system) with a low-cost do-it-yourself open hardware interface and a web-based monitoring system embedded into SCICOS blocks.

The simple concept of the open hardware interface called BIOE (Basic Input Output Elements, bioe.sourceforge.net) allows the real-time application to interact with general analog and digital signals as well as to more complex devices (e.g. resistive touch panels, RC servos, I²C acceleration sensors). Furthermore, a prototype of a web-based monitoring system using AJAX is treated. It consists of a http web server embedded into a SCICOS block so that existing SCICOS code generation packages for rt-preempt Linux can be used without modifications.

To demonstrate the applicability and usability of the proposed framework a nonlinear model-based control law for a mechatronic multi-input multi-output system is derived with the concept of input/output linearization and realized with the proposed open framework.