Design and Implementation of a Ball-Plate Control System and Python Script for Educational Purposes in STEM Technologies

Abstract

This paper presents the process of designing, fabricating, assembling, programming and optimizing a prototype nonlinear mechatronic Ball-Plate System (BPS) as a laboratory platform for engineering education STEM. Due to the nonlinearity and complexity of BPS, the task presents challenges such as: (1) difficulty in controlling the stabilization of a particular position point, known as steady-state error, (2) position resolution, known as specific distance error, and (3) adverse environmental effects—light-shadow error, which is also discussed in this paper. The laboratory prototype BPS for education was designed, manufactured and installed at Karlovac University of Applied Sciences in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics program. The low-cost two-degree BPS uses a USB HD camera for computer vision as a feedback sensor and two DC servo motors as actuators. Due to control problems, an advanced block diagram of the control system is proposed and discussed. An open-source control system based on Python scripts, which allows the use of ready-made functions from the library, allows the color of the ball and the parameters of the PID controller to be changed, indirectly simplifying the control system and performing mathematical calculations directly. The authors will continue their research on this BPS mechatronic platform and control algorithms.

Hardware and Software Solutions for the Generation of a Database of HSV-Color Characteristics for the Main Ores and Rocks of the Khibiny Massif

“…For contouring the HMCA, a binarization algorithm, which is perfect for image processing [14][15][16][17][18], including photos of the core surface, is applied. The binarization process is the conversion of a color image or a grayscale image into a black and white one.…”

“…The boundaries of the HSV-color range (or the HMCA boundaries) in the designed software are determined by means of a separate module, which is similar to the one described in [14,24]. The setting of the ranges changes the limits of each HSV-color coordinate s values, which are the threshold values determined by moving the program sliders (Figure 6).…”

Design, Implementation, and Control of a Linear Electric Actuator for Educational Mechatronics

“…Other works, such as [17], outlined the steps involved in creating a prototype nonlinear mechatronic ball-plate system (BPS) as a laboratory platform for STEM education. The BPS had two degrees of motion and used a universal serial bus high-definition (USB HD) camera for computer vision and two direct current (DC) servo motors for control.…”

Metaheuristic Optimization Algorithm Based Cascaded Control Schemes for Nonlinear Ball and Balancer System

“…As evidenced by settling times, errors, and convergence times, as well as the robustness of the WOA-PID for tuning parameters for PID controllers for robot tracking, it had proved effective for tracking robots with or without disturbances. The control of such systems was also addressed by using intelligent controllers or autonomous decision-making methods [21][22][23][24]. The simulation results indicate that sliding mode control (SMC) control scheme excels in dynamic performance as well as disturbance rejection compared to PID, fuzzy control , and LQR control [25].…”