A virtual lab with automatic assessment for nonlinear controller design exercises*

In this work we present a Virtual Laboratory which communicates with a novel automatic grading platform. The integration of both tools enables a professor for easily authoring nonlinear control interactive exercises and automatically evaluating the work of students. The Virtual Lab has been developed using Easy Java Simulations and Goodle GMS, and it has symbolic math processing capabilities. By using the lab, the student can carry out simulations of general nonlinear affine systems (proposed by the professor) in closed-loop with any nonlinear controller designed by himself. The virtual lab developed not only features these customization and simulation capabilities, but can also evaluate the validity of the designed controller. Because of its flexibility, it can be used in many different nonlinear control courses, both in undergraduate and master courses.