Modular Workbench for In-Situ and Remote Laboratories

Abstract

This communication describes a learning platform which is being developed at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) in Barcelona, Spain. The goal was to solve the trade-offbetween the need for performing real laboratory practices in engineering education and the emergent implantation ofdistance learning in our curricula. Most of our courses in Electronic Engineering have 50% of the load devoted to laboratory work. The semi-distance EE degree allows the students to carry out at home the theory and problems study but keeps the in-situ laboratories.We developed a previous remote laboratory f1], based on a VXI system, an experiments board and a web-server that is working since 2002 but which cannot serve simultaneous users and which is difficult to expand and maintain.The workbench we popose intends to preserve the experimental work but allowing the students to perform a variable number of laboratory activities remotely, using the same platform than the insitu laboratories. This approach preserves not only the feeling of reality but the knowledge of the experimental set-up features. The subject of the experience is the sensors and signal conditioning laboratory.The solution is based on a modular set of electronic boards. Two kind of base or mother boards allow the connection of several daughterboards which implement the different experiments. One of the motherboards is only intended for in-situ experiments but the other includes an Ethernet capable microcontroller and AID and DIA converters which allow the realisation of both in-situ and remote laboratory activities over the same set-up.The microcontroller firmware is based on a commandparser that accepts SCPI strings. The board is controlled through LabView drivers which use the TCPJIP sockets and the specific applications can be controlled using remote pannels in Lab View 7.1 both in-situ and remotely. Access control, register and scheduling will be performed using the UPC virtual campus Atenea, which is implemented using Moodle (Modular Object Oriented Distance Learning Environment) fI 7].

Instruments and Experiments Control Methodology Based on IVI and LXI Technologies

“…b) VXI (VME eXtensions for Instrumentation): a VXI system generally is composed of a frame (also called mainframe chassis), which contains a maximum of 13 slots in each of which a card/instrument can be placed. The first slot (module 0), is aimed at the system control module and the remaining 12 are dedicated to modular instruments [12]. c) GPIB (General Purpose Interface Bus or IEEE 488.2): GPIB is an asynchronous communication protocol, with certain limitations with respect to the hardware and the technology used for its implementation so the maximum transmission speed is 2Mbits/sec to a maximum distance of 20 meters.…”

A remote laboratory to promote the interaction between University and Secondary Education

“…Several initiatives are being carried out, mainly in the western countries, to promote the technological and engineering vocations. In ETSETBTelecom BCN, the Telecom and Electronics Engineering School of Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), placed in Barcelona, an existing modular remote laboratory platform [1] has been adapted to provide remote access to real experiments to Secondary Education students, as a way to increase their technological knowledge and skills but also to promote the interaction between the Secondary Education students and teachers and the University.…”

“…REMOTE LABORATORY iLabRS has been built over our custom modular platform [1] to develop remote laboratories in the instrumentation and sensors field. It is based on a main board that one of its functionalities is to provide a custom acquisition system around an Ethernet-capable microcontroller.…”