Internet-based Control-design Environment and Its Use in Education

A control-design environment complementing the MATLAB control synthesis toolset with a toolbox called DYNAST for efficient modeling and ‘virtual prototyping’ has been developed. While MATLAB and Simulink require manual formulation of equations and block diagrams characterizing the controlled system, DYNAST allows for the system simulation, thorough verification and diagnostics without any such time consuming and error prone drudgery. DYNAST, sitting on the Czech Technical University server, can communicate with MATLAB and Simulink installed on client computers directly across the Internet. DYNAST is freely accessible in a Web-based, on-line and e-mail modes on http://virtual.cvut.cz/dyn/. This control-design environment has been exploited in a Web-based course on modeling and simulation of controlled multidisciplinary systems.