Kristian Nilsson

Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality (VISIR) for Remote Wiring and Measurement of Electronic Circuits on Breadboard

This paper reports on a state-of-the-art remote laboratory project called Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality (VISIR). VISIR allows wiring and measuring of electronic circuits remotely on a virtual workbench that replicates physical circuit breadboards. The wiring mechanism is developed by means of a relay switching matrix connected to a PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation (PXI) instrumentation platform. The entire equipment is controlled by LabVIEW server software, in addition to a measurement server software that protects the equipment from hazard connections by verifying input circuit designs, sent by students, before being executed. This paper addresses other approaches such as remote labs based on Data Acquisition Cards (DAQs), NetLab, and RemotElectLab, comparing them with VISIR in order to emphasize its singularity. Topics discussed are as follows: the technical description, software, operation cycle, features, and provided services. In addition, the feedback received by students at several universities and the encountered drawbacks along with the proposed solutions are highlighted. The paper finally addresses the ongoing and future challenges within the VISIR community including its integration with Learning Management Systems (LMSs) and iLab Shared Architecture (ISA), its new hardware version release that is based on LAN eXtensions for Instrumentation (LXI), and its new open platform version that supports federated access.

Simulations of the VISIR Open Lab Platform

This paper presents a queue simulation of a remote laboratory based on the VISIR Open Lab Platform designed at Blekinge Institute of Technology. A model of this VISIR laboratory and statistical distributions of how users interact with the system based on real log files are presented. The system is then simulated in order to determine how many concurrent students that can be allowed to use the laboratory while at the same time keeping a low response time to ensure the quality of the service. The results show, in a worst case setup with approximately 300 ms response time per experiment, that roughly 100 concurrent users is an upper limit to ensure an average response time below 2 s. The results also show that raising the limit of the desired experiment response time does not necessarily increase the number allowed concurrent users significantly once the system is saturated. However, improving the experiment response time can significantly increase the number of users that can simultaneously be connected.

On physical experiments and individual assessment of laboratory work in engineering education

It is obvious that our society needs more engineers. It is also true that mankind must live in symbiosis with nature and focus on sustainability and understanding. Thus, engineers must be able to design products and services which are in line with the principles of nature and the only way to become familiar with these principles is to perform many physical experiments. A way to use instructional laboratories more effectively and offer more hours in the laboratories for students without significant increased cost per student is opening them for remote access. Hands-on experiments are indispensable but remote mouse-cursor-on ones can supplement them. The VISIR (Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality) Open Laboratory Platform offers an open standard for online workbenches enabling students not only to perform physical experiments 24/7 but also to practice laboratory work. Learning objectives of laboratory work, free access to laboratory resources, and individual assessment of such work should be important key elements in an education delivering engineers with a solid documented laboratory experience.

Remote Access of Computer Controlled Experiments

In this paper, we present a way for students to access and operate laboratory equipment, controlled by a laboratory computer via a remote access program. In this way, the solution is not dependent ...

Remotely controlled laboratory setup for Active Noise Control and acoustic experiments

This paper presents a remotely controlled educational experiments setup for Active Noise Control (ANC) and acoustic experiments. The experiments setup is based on the Virtual Instruments Systems in Reality (VISIR) open source platform, National Instruments LabVIEW software and a Digital Signal Processor TMS320C6713 from Texas Instruments. The software development and equipment are controlled remotely form a client PC using a standard web browser. The proposed laboratory setup focuses on ANC experiments applied to noise in a ventilation duct. The laboratory setup will enable students to test and investigate properties and behaviour of adaptive algorithms in reality as compared to more confined simulations usually carried out in Matlab etc. The general steps in ANC, such as the feasibility of active control, designing, testing and debugging ANC algorithms, configuration and implementation of an active control system, are all covered. In addition students will be able to study the effect of analog to digital converters (ADC), anti-aliasing filters, digital to analog converters (DAC) and reconstruction filters using digital signal processing in reality, etc. The laboratory setup is suitable for a wide range of courses such as sound related experiments in upper secondary school physics, digital signal processing, adaptive signal processing, and acoustics at university level.

International Cooperation for Remote Laboratory Use

Experimenting is fundamental to the training process of all scientists and engineers. While experiments have been traditionally done inside laboratories, the emergence of Information and Communication Technologies added two alternatives accessible anytime, anywhere. These two alternatives are known as virtual and remote laboratories and are sometimes indistinguishably referred as online laboratories. Similarly to other instructional technologies, virtual and remote laboratories require some effort from teachers in integrating them into curricula, taking into consideration several factors that affect their adoption (i.e., cost) and their educational effectiveness (i.e., benefit). This chapter analyzes these two dimensions and sustains the case where only through international cooperation it is possible to serve the large number of teachers and students involved in engineering education. It presents an example in the area of electrical and electronics engineering, based on a remote laboratory named Virtual Instruments System in Reality, and it then describes how a number of European and Latin American institutions have been cooperating under the scope of an Erasmus+ project, for spreading its use in Brazil and Argentina.

Lab sessions in VISIR laboratories

Experimental activities with real components are an essential part of all courses including or devoted to electrical and electronic circuits theory and practice. The knowledge triangle composed of hand-written exercises, simulations and traditional lab experiments has been enriched with the possibility for students to conduct real experiments over the Internet, using remote labs. This tutorial is devoted to one such remote lab named Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality (VISIR). The Global Online Laboratory Consortium (GOLC) elected VISIR as the best remote controlled laboratory in the world, at the first time this distinction was awarded. At the end of this tutorial, attendees are expected to know what is VISIR, what can (not) be done with it, who is currently using it, and how can one integrate it in a given course curriculum.