Infrastructure

The laboratory is where students develop complex control algorithms, implement them in software, verify and debug them, making use of the on-board hardware and measuring instrument complex. Software algorithms are developed for multi-agent robotic systems to ensure coordinated operation of different types of autonomous robots connected by a wireless network. The laboratory equipment makes it possible to advance and build on the existing research groundwork and applications in the field of intelligent robot control.

The hardware and software complex entitled “Digital Technologies of Control Systems” is equipped with the latest training and research equipment, applied and specialized engineering computation and analysis software, virtual modeling and design, and other software and hardware.

The Dynamics, Inertial Navigation and Control Hardware and Software Complex  is intended for training and research work with a semirealistic mockup and computer simulation of an aircraft’s flight with piloting and navigation assignments to be solved, and makes it possible to study the operation principles of platform-free inertial aircraft navigation and control systems. The complex’s hardware connected with computing facilities and specialized software serves to set semirealistic experiments and to perform computer aircraft flight simulation, with visualized software control effects on the real object accompanied by the reading of navigation parameters and their processing to restore the aircraft’s trajectories.

The training simulator entitled “Virtual Laboratory of Missile Gyroscopic Navigation Sensors and Inertial Systems” is designed to study the principles and mathematical algorithms of intercontinental inertia-based missile control and navigation. The simulator uses a generalized schematic three-dimensional model of a typical ballistic missile control system, including its inertial navigation blocks, while the virtual laboratory software complex serves to study the operation principles of gyroscopic sensors and inertial navigation systems.

The Virtual Software Optical Navigation Research Complex uses 3D imaging, animation, and a particle system to study the principles and mathematical apparatus underlying optical navigation methods.

The Virtual Interactive Demonstration Complex for historical missions and launches as well as emerging space mission projects is designed to demonstrate highly detailed three-dimensional models of space vehicles; one can view the entire cycle of flight and work in the orbit or on the surface of a celestial body, or recreate three-dimensional views of historical and future spacecraft. The virtual complex can also be used to study aerospace vehicle devices, propulsion systems, and launch complexes. In addition, the laboratory has sets of equipment to explore control and stabilization of mechatronic systems, the positioning and tracking systems located on the craft’s movable plinth, or the static and dynamic characteristics of modern systems while doing lab works and practical assignments in the following subjects: Automatic control theory, Control system simulation, Microprocessor-based hardware system devices, Onboard monitoring and control systems, Technical automation and control tools, Smart control systems, Digital control systems, Technological system identification and diagnostics, Electro-mechanical and mechatrone systems, Sensor systems in automation.

At the Biomedicine Laboratory, students study the chemical and physical techniques of researching bioobjects and familiarize themselves with the analytical laboratory equipment of health institutions. At the Functional Diagnostics Laboratory, students acquire the skills needed to operate cardiographs, encephalographs, myographs, rheographs, spirometers, audiometers, and other hospital equipment. The Virtual Imaging Laboratory for Radiation Therapy enables students, with the help of the unique VERT system (UK), to improve their knowledge of anatomy and dosimetry, to process MRI and CT images, and to master new radiological methods of patient diagnosis and treatment.

In order to improve the technical literacy of talented young people and to give them a support system in the field of science, technology and processes, the Center conducts activities aimed at developing existing and verifying new teaching and learning techniques for students, instructors and other educational workers of Moscow. Additional engineering education programs intended and conducted for students include the following: Introduction to robotics, Digital prototyping, Special and industrial robots, Build your own robot, Electronic circuit design, Robotics management, Research on robotic models, and Robots of the 21st century. The staff of the Center supervise the design and research projects for school students who take part in the Engineering Starters contest in Moscow and help teachers from Moscow schools to organize and supervise engineering class students’ projects.

The center is designed to prepare students for work at modern digital robotic manufacturing plants and to teach them to design such facilities. It has four laboratories:

The Digital Robotics Manufacturing Laboratory is designed to train students in the design and programming of operations at robotic manufacturing facilities and the use of modern computer-aided design (CAD) tools for numerically controlled machines (CNC) as engineer or operator of contemporary SCADA systems and distributed process control systems in digital robotic manufacturing. The laboratory equipment includes 8 industrial robots connected by a common transport system, 2 robotic warehouses and 4 CNC machines.

The Hardware Components for Industrial Robotics Control Systems Laboratory. At this laboratory, students learn to design control systems made up of modern industry-standard hardware components. Students also master advanced software development techniques for such systems, including the use of real-time operating systems and Hardware-In-Loop simulation. The equipment consists of eight workbenches, each equipped with a programmable logic controller (PLC), a frequency converter, a two-axis servo drive, two step drives, an emergency safety system conforming to IEC61508, a distributed I/O system, and a Cartesian kinematics training robot.

The Laboratory of Data Measuring Instruments for Industrial Robotic Systems. At this laboratory, students explore the reasonable choice method and learn to use modern data measuring instruments in designing industrial control systems, as well as to configure them in practice. The laboratory equipment includes vision systems, force-torque sensing systems, platform-free inertial navigation systems, ultrasonic and laser distance sensors.

The Laboratory of Mathematical Simulation and Digital Industrial Robot Twins is intended for students to acquire the skills of independent industrial control system design and to simulate and create digital twins of robot-based complexes.

All of the center’s equipment, including its robots, machine tools, transport system, air treatment station, ventilation and air conditioning systems, access control system, lighting and power supply, are controlled by a DCS APROL distributed process control system.