Ricardo Costa [email protected] / [email protected] laboris.isep.ipp.pt/rjc

Overview on remote laboratoriessome representative laboratories and projects in the electrical engineering domain

Ricardo Costa

[email protected] / [email protected] http://www.laboris.isep.ipp.pt/rjc

Doctoral ConsortiumResearch Methods Course

Coimbra 29th January 2010

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Ricardo Costa - [email protected] - http://www.laboris.isep.ipp.pt/rjc

Presentation outline

Introduction

Background on laboratory work and laboratory types

Educational and technical issues

Examples of remote laboratories– Netlab – University of South Australia– MIT iLab – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (EUA)– VISIR Project (Deusto Weblab) - University of Deusto (Spain)– NUS Laboratory – National University of Singapore– Other projects

Conclusions and a future direction

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Introduction

In the last years there was a technology evolution;People adopted technology in their lives (e.g. Internet, PCs, mobile devices, etc.)

So…it was an opportunity for applying technology to education motivating students for learning;

Currently…technologies (internet + PC) are playing an important role in educationproviding flexibility for students and teachers.(e.g. Virtual Learning Environments like Moodle).

However…Sciences & Engineering courses require laboratory work (experimental work) which are not included in those environments !

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Background on laboratory work and lab. types

Simulations

ExercisesDocuments,

Images, animations,

Etc.

Sciences & Engineeringcourses

Group activities

Research

Practical WorkTheoretical Work

Laboratory work(experimental work)VLE -Virtual Learning Environments

Videoconference tools

Is it possible to use technology (Internet + PCs) to facilitate/improve the conduction of experimental work ?

Personal Computers

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Background on laboratory work and lab. types

Traditional labs(hands-on labs)

Virtual labs (simulated labs)

Hybrid labs

Remote labs (weblabs)

Laboratory work(experimental work)

Students must be physically in the laboratory and the equipment is real.

Locally, students conduct experiments using equipment modeled by software.

Students can interact with real equipment from everywhere at anytime using a simple device (PC, smart phone or mobile phone, etc.)connected to the internet.

Students interact with both simulatedand real equipment.

Real resultsFlexibilityCollaborationMotivation Costs may be reduced, etc.

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Technical issues: concern the way each Educational issue should be technically implemented.

Remote labs(weblabs)

Educational issues: concern the requirements that a remote laboratory should meet to provide all the facilities to achieve good learning and teaching processes.

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Following ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology)laboratory work should provide:• Conceptual understanding - activities should help students understand, solve problems and

illustrate concepts and principles;• Design skills - students should learn how to design, construct and research;• Social skills - students must run laboratory activities not only individually but also in groups;• Professional skills - technical skills and practical knowledge should be provided.

Literature review conducted in2006 by Ma and Nickerson based on 37 selected papers (2006)

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device (PC, smart phone, mobile phone, etc.)

internet Web Serverunit(s)U

nder Test

Students

Laboratory Server(pedagogical contents and

administrative services (e.g. booking and security access systems, etc.)).

Instrumentation Server(connection with

instruments, webcams, UUTs).

instrument(s)

webcam(s)

Teachers

Work groups

Conceptual model of a remote laboratory infrastructure plus the involved actors.

Etc.

Etc.

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LabVIEW interface

PXI chassis

Remote lab infrastructure

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Examples of remote laboratories

Netlab - University of South Australia (UniSA) - 2002•RC Transient Analysis, AC Phasor Analysis, Series Resonant Circuit and RC Filter•Virtual Instrumentation Software Architecture (VISA)•Circuit Builder; Collaborative tools; Booking system (real-time control mode)•Website available in: http://netlab.unisa.edu.au/

Web interfaceBooking system

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iLab – MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology (EUA) - 2000•Chemical eng., polymer crystallization, structural eng., signal processing, microelectronics•iLab Shared Architecture (ISA): i) Client; ii) Service Broker; iii) Lab Server•Adopted NI-Elvis platform from NI for creating electrical laboratories.•Website available in: http://ilab.mit.edu/ServiceBroker/

Microelectronics labISA architecture

NI-Elvis platform(2006)

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VISIR Project - 2006•VISIR consortium: FH Campus Wien and Carinthia University of Applied Sciences - Austria, University of Deusto - Spain, University of Genoa - Italy, Gunadarma University - Indonesia and Uninova - Portugal.•Goal: Create an open laboratory platform for the reuse of software modules;•Ruled by the IVI Foundation - standard instrument programming interfaces;

University of Deusto example - 2007•Electronics workbench;•The website: https://www.weblab.deusto.es/

Virtual breadboard Virtual instrument shelf

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NUS laboratory - National University of Singapore - 2000•Experiments: frequency modulation; coupled tank, 2D and 3D oscilloscope, helicopter and Robotic Soccer;•Follows a double client-server architecture (client-webserver-controller);•The website is available in: http://vlab.ee.nus.edu.sg/.

Architecture

Frequency modulation experiment

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Other projects

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•There is an widespread of remote laboratories in S&E courses;

•Remote laboratories improve the S&E courses providing more and better laboratorial experiments (they are complementing traditional laboratories);

•But… remote laboratories follow specific and distinct technical implementations, with several hardware and software architectures. There is no standard solution for creating remote laboratory infrastructures which creates some problems:

•collaboration among institutions is weak, because it is difficult the reuse and interface different instruments/modules (I&M) used by a specific experiment;

•some institutions do not apply weblabs in their courses because they don’t have the required technical skills;

•costs may be high, since creating a weblab infrastructure requires a PC and associated software, together with several instruments (eventually comprehending several futures not required in a specific experiment), and;•an architecture based on a single PC poses constraints for running several

experiments, requiring scheduling techniques.

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Servidor

Instrumentation Bus

Lab Server

Ethernet

Database

InstrumentRobots

Experiment

InstrumentInstrumentInstrumentation Server

Web Lab infrastructure

usersWEB

Web Interfacesto remotely control a specific

experiment

Pedagogical ContentsAccess Management

Control / Monitorization

FPGA-based Boards + IEEE

1451.0 Std.

Solution: adopt reconfigurable devices like FPGA-based Boards following the IEEE 1451.0 Std. (which is a std. for interfacing smart transducers).

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THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION

Ricardo Costa

Contacts:

http://www.laboris.isep.ipp.pt/rjc

[email protected] or [email protected]

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FPGA-based Board example

Spartan-3E Starter Kit - XILINXA/D and D/A

Ethernet port I/O portsLCD

display

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IEEE 1451.0 Std.

IEEE Standard for a Smart Transducer Interface for Sensors and Actuators — Common Functions, Communication Protocols, and Transducer Electronic Data Sheet (TEDS) Formats.

Approved on 2007.

This standard provides a common basis for members of the IEEE 1451 family of standards to be interoperable. It defines the functions that are to be performed by a transducer interface module (TIM) and the common characteristics for all devices that implement the TIM. It specifies the formats for Transducer Electronic Data Sheets (TEDS). It defines a set of commands to facilitate the setup and control of the TIM as well as reading and writing the data used by the system. Application programming interfaces (APIs) are defined to facilitate communications with the TIM and with applications.

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IEEE 1451.0 Std. – reference model (I)

NCAP – Network Capable Application Processor

TIM - Transducer Interface Module

TEDS -Transducer Electronic Data Sheet

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IEEE 1451.0 Std. – reference model (II)

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Ricardo Costa [email protected] / [email protected] laboris.isep.ipp.pt/rjc

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