Remote Control of Active Noise Control and Acoustics Experiment Setup via the Internet

In this paper we present a flexible, user friendly and robust active noise control (ANC) and acoustics experiment setup based on a heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) duct. The experiment setup has been found to be valuable for simple active noise control, acoustic and real time digital signal processing experiments, with users ranging from high school students to researchers involved in the active control field. Initially the prototype of this experiment setup was equipped with error and reference microphones at fixed positions in the duct. Now further steps have been taken in the development of this remotely controlled ANC laboratory. In the new setup the user will be able to control the position of the microphones inside the duct remotely via the Internet using a simple web interface. The microphone positioning mechanism is realized using a number of stepper motors (FL57STH76-2804A), stepper motor drivers (SSK-B02), and National Instruments motion controller (NI PXI-7356). The microphone positioning control will enable a user to study the acoustic behaviour of the HVAC duct at different spatial positions in the duct with precision. Apart from performing regular ANC experiments the flexibility introduced by the new microphone positioning system will enable the user to gain a more insight into the active noise control by e.g. studying the dependence of active noise control’s performance on the spatial position of reference and (or) error microphone. The laboratory equipment and the usage of the laboratory setup for acoustics and active noise control experiments are the subject of discussion for the paper.