Bicopshield: A Twin-Rotor Portable Laboratory for Control Engineering Education

This paper presents the BicopShield, a novel, opensource educational device developed within the AutomationShield initiative to support hands-on learning in control engineering. It allows students to explore key concepts from control theory, such as system identification and feedback control, through a mechatronic bicopter system. Featuring a low-cost, replicable design with off-the-shelf components and 3D-printed parts, BicopShield is suitable for classroom and take-home applications. The device's application programming interface (API) is available in C/C++ for Arduino IDE, and for MATLAB/Simulink. This paper details the BicopShield's design, API, and sample exercises, demonstrating its use in reinforcing theoretical knowledge through practical application.