A Web Based Real Time Speed Control Experiment on Ultrasonic Motor for Educational Purposes

This study introduces original system architecture for the web based remote experimentation applications for e-learning systems. The speed control of a traveling wave ultrasonic motor (USM) is achieved as a remote experimental study over the Internet to illustrate the architecture. For this reason, a microcontroller based digitally controlled drive system for the USM is designed firstly. A data acquisition board is then used to perform data transferring and control operations between the server and the drive system. Data obtained from experimental set is analyzed in the MATLAB program installed on the server. Similarly, MATLAB web server (MWS) software is Used to send and receive data over the Internet. Since all operation steps are executed from the server, clients do not need any special hardware or software unit. Thus, the system developed has an independent structure for the clients. Remotely located clients can operate and control the motor and conduct the experiment. Additionally, real laboratory environment and the experimental set can be monitored on the client computer's screen while the experiment is being operated. The results obtained from the tests show that the system developed has significant features such as simplicity, sensitivity, reliability and speedy. Accordingly, the system presented can be adapted to e-learning systems easily as an effective tool for remote experimentation.