A low‐cost, free‐software platform with hard real‐time performance for control engineering education

In this paper, we present a novel portable servomechanism control platform for educational purposes. The platform main features are: low cost, reliable and robust hardware, high‐speed USB interface, free open source software (FOSS), graphical interface modeling (via Scilab/XCos) and hard real‐time performance based on the Real‐Time Application Interface for Linux (RTAI). The platform is easy to interface with any computer and can be carried home by students, opening many new possibilities for practical assignments in control courses. We include application examples and student feedback regarding their experience during various workshops in which the system was demonstrated.