Arduino Universal Serial Bus (USB) Interfacing with MATLAB Control Toolbox

Abstract

Nowadays, the Arduino are widely used in daily applications because it is easy to be deal with. Besides, MATLAB software tool is proper tool be used as interface with hardware such as Arduino. The main aim of this research is to design a Direct Current (DC) motor speed controller circuit controlled and monitored by MATLAB program designed in SIMULINK and Graphical User Interface (GUI) environment. This thesis focuses on the DC motor speed control by varying the duty cycle of Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal via Arduino, which is used to generate PWM signals assisted by MATLAB software. PWM speed control is desirable due to its high power efficiency compare and with another method of speed control like frequency control, current and voltage control. The motor averages the input duty cycle into a constant speed which is directly proportional to the percent duty cycle. The MATLAB sends PWM signal to Arduino through Universal Serial Bus (USB), Arduino will boost the PWM signal to the driver to control the motor. Both SIMULINK and GUI programs were able to control and monitor the motor speed which is most important feature in engineering control applications as data acquisition and research tools.