Development of a new android application to remotely control a micro‐cogeneration system as e‐learning tool

Abstract

The increasing use of smartphone technology in people's daily lives and its continuous development lead to the inevitable use of mobile applications because of their easy access anytime and anywhere. In this study, a new Android application for smartphones is developed and presented for the remote control of a micro‐cogeneration system from a mobile device without the need to be near the system. The mobile application consists of five different windows through which real‐time data on the most important variables of the system can be observed at any time. Additionally, the application allows the user to select the system's desired operating mode among a total of five possibilities. Alarms and warnings are also shown along with the detailed status of the main variables of the groups forming the system. Moreover, the application can graphically show the progression of variables at any time, and a history of the changes to the system is available. An experimental practice based on the “use of current mobile applications” for a subject of the Master of Thermal Engineering is proposed as a pedagogical method that involves the procedure “learning by doing,” in which students can realize the great advantages of using these technologies. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 24:497–507, 2016; View this article online at http://www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI

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