Data acquisition and real-time control using spreadsheets: Interfacing Excel with external hardware

✍ Scribed by Nourdine Aliane

• Book ID: 104018929
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 1018 KB
• Volume: 49
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0019-0578
• DOI: 10.1016/j.isatra.2010.03.009

✦ Synopsis

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.