QLabs Virtual Ball and Beam
Virtual platform for distance and blended undergraduate control systems courses
QLabs Virtual Ball and Beam is a fully instrumented, dynamically accurate digital twin of the Quanser Ball and Beam system. It behaves in the same way as the physical hardware and can be measured and controlled using MATLAB®/Simulink® and other development environments. With QLabs Virtual Ball and Beam, you can enrich your lectures and activities in traditional labs, or bring credible, authentic model-based lab experiences into your distance and online control systems course.
QLabs Virtual Ball and Beam is available as a 12-month, multi-seat subscription. The platform is compatible with the physical Ball and Beam curriculum, which covers various modelling and control topics.
Product Details
Same as the physical Ball and Beam, the virtual system features a track on which a ball is free to roll. The track is effectively a potentiometer, outputting a voltage proportional to the position of the ball. The tilt angle of the track is controlled by the Rotary Servo’s DC motor.
- High-fidelity, credible lab experiences equivalent to use of physical lab equipment
- 12-month, multi-seat subscription
- Full access to system parameters through MATLAB®/Simulink®
- ABET-aligned curriculum
| App download & access to subscription management | Quanser Academic Portal |
| App OS compatibility | Microsoft Windows 10 or later |
| Required software | Curriculum designed for MATLAB and Simulink R2021a or later, with compatibility with Python 3 |
| Minimum system requirements | Video Card: Intel HD 520 or equivalent DX11 GPU Processor: Core i5-6300U series mobile CPU or equivalent Memory: 8 GB RAM |
| Recommended system requirements | Video Card: Intel UHD 620 or equivalent GPU Processor: Core i7-8665U series mobile CPU or equivalent Memory: 16 GB RAM |
Modeling Topics
- First-principles derivation
- Transfer function representation
- Linearization
- Model validation
Control Topics
- PID
- Multiple loops
- Root locus
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