title: Data acquisition and real-time control using spreadsheets: interfacing Excel with external hardware.
abstract: Spreadsheets have become a popular computational tool and a powerful platform for performing engineering calculations. Moreover, spreadsheets include a macro language, which permits the inclusion of standard computer code in worksheets, and thereby enable developers to greatly extend spreadsheets' capabilities by designing specific add-ins. This paper describes how to use Excel spreadsheets in conjunction to Visual Basic for Application programming language to perform data acquisition and real-time control. Afterwards, the paper presents two Excel applications with interactive user interfaces developed for laboratory demonstrations and experiments in an introductory course in control.
authors.affiliation: Dpto: Sistemas Informáticos y Automática, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Villaviciosa de Odón, Madrid 28670, Spain. nourdine.aliane@uem.es
authors.forename: Nourdine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Aliane
mesh_terms: D003201:Computers; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D003626:Data Display; D011381:Programming Languages; D012984:Software