Virtual Instrument Research Articles

Real time surge voltage control using smart IoT

As the demand for energy is increasing exponentially due to the growing population, it needs to be properly monitored and controlled. On the other hand, nowadays, we are facing a lack of technical knowledge in monitoring and controlling energy consumption. Over the past several years, there has been a rapid increase in both the utilization of energy loads and the use of various forms of power electronic equipment. As a result, contamination of the electricity supply is becoming an increasingly critical issue. The purpose of this study is to provide the design and implementation of a virtual instrument tool that uses LabVIEW for real-time online monitoring of power quality. Readings are traditionally extracted manually from devices of this kind. A smart energy meter can help overcome these problems, allowing people to take readings from any location globally, thanks to technology that makes use of the Internet of Things. In addition to the amount of energy being consumed, the smart energy meter will provide information on other characteristics such as voltage, current, power, and frequency. This enables us to achieve the ideal level of load control. For load management, LabVIEW is the tool of choice. Users can tailor their pricing plans to their financial situations using this technology. The PZEM-004T sensor is utilized for measuring parameters, and the Node MCU is the component that transmits the data to the server. Users can exert influence over the system through both mobile applications and web applications. This system also helps detect surge conditions of appliances and can break them using a relay.

MaterialSense: Estimating and utilizing material properties of contact objects in multi-touch interaction

In today’s digital art applications, users can play virtual musical instruments or paint on virtual canvas using multi-touch input. Existing touch input devices, however, do not consider that the result of artistic expression changes depending on the material properties of the tool that comes into contact with the art medium. This paper proposes a novel method called MaterialSense that estimates the material properties of objects in contact with a touch input surface. The technique uses a commercial touchpad with six load cells attached, and when up to two objects are in contact, solves the force equilibrium equation to estimate the stiffness and friction coefficient of each contacted object. By analyzing the time-series data of the measured 3-axis force and normal vector for each touchpoint, it can estimate the stiffness and kinetic friction coefficient of the contacted object. Estimated material properties enable novel and realistic artistic expressions in touch-based digital art applications, such as changes in the tone of virtual instruments or the effects of different painting brushes. We present two application scenarios using MaterialSense, along with an in-depth technical evaluation to verify the accuracy and precision of its estimates.

Playing Gamelan Bonang in the Air: User Requirements for Designing a Digital Musical Instrument for the Malay Bonang

In recent years, computer technologies have been impactful in the design and development of Digital Musical Instruments (DMIs). As music interaction became prominent in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) field, emphasis on user requirement upon the design of musical interfaces has also grown since the last decade. Although designing new DMIs is becoming very popular, it is often determined by the designers and often not reflective of users’ needs. In this study, we explored user requirements for the design of a virtual musical instrument of the Malay bonang, an instrument found in the Malay gamelan ensemble. The requirements were elicited from a group of gamelan experts to establish the bonang playing techniques to be mapped to the virtual instrument which we called Air Bonang. Findings revealed that in designing the Air Bonang that is natural and expressive, the fundamental playing techniques of the bonang should be integrated into the system using mid-air interaction. In addition, exploratory techniques might also be integrated into the Air Bonang to leverage musical expression. The outcome of the study proposes design criteria that encompass three aspects of a natural Air Bonang, namely, embodiment, expressiveness, and feedback.

Virtual IoT Device in C# WPF Using Sinric Pro

Purpose: IoT is becoming the leading player in the industrial automation environment. In most scenarios, we experiment with IoT using a physical device. We can also research using a virtual device that can perform as real hardware. Without buying any physical hardware, we can visualize the status of the operating load or device which is being triggered through the IoT server or client endpoint. The researcher who is not from an electronics background or does not have sufficient knowledge to continue IoT research can do experiments using it. This paper will show how we can create such kinds of virtual instruments or devices. We use the C# client application adopted from Sinric Pro. We simplified the client module for new researchers in the IoT field for easy understanding. We added some Graphical user elements to display the status of the devices in real-life we see. The code is available for customization. Design/Methodology/Approach: We create and configure the device inside the Sinric Pro IoT server. Download the C# client and customize it for better understanding. We added some graphical elements to display the status of the load. Then we trigger the load from any endpoint like Alexa, the server dashboard, or a mobile phone application. Findings/Result: We get better load status visibility using the GUI element and a minimalistic code structure to send or receive the data to and from the IoT server. Through this concept, we made IoT development or demonstration easy. With slight modifications, we can use this procedure to communicate with any IoT server. Originality/Value: Various clients of fake load for IoT are available. Here we are experimenting more realistic way. Fetching the status and triggers the load using visual indication as the real world does. So it will be more understandable to us, and also, we can trigger the load from our GUI, which has the feature to send the value to the respective load. Paper Type: Experimental-based Research.

Light intensity measurement using LabVIEW graphical programming environment

Abstract Lighting and light distribution have a crucial influence on factors such as performance and occupational safety. This paper aims to create a virtual instrument (VI), developed around the Arduino Uno development platform, designed to measure the light intensity using the BPW34 sensitive silicon PIN photodiode. The reverse-biased photodiode can be used as a light detector by monitoring the current flowing through it. Coupled to a 10Kohm resistor and considering the specifications of the BPW34 model, a simple relationship is offered between lux (light intensity) and the voltage across the resistance. The virtual instrument reads this voltage and converts it to a light intensity value in Lux. There is also an alarming function if the light intensity exceeds the set value. The VI also shows basic statistics like Max, Mean, and Min light intensity values.

Retos y desafíos de la formación universitaria frente a la pandemia: la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana

The document is an empirical study that shows the context in which virtual teaching was developed at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana as a result of the health emergency. The study discusses the response of the educational institution to the covid-19 pandemic; the challenge faced by the University in the transition from face-to-face to virtual modality; the resources available to the educational institution; the preparation of teaching staff; the adaptation of students to the change of modality and the effectiveness of virtual instruments in the learning process in terms of educational innovation. This is an analysis that inclu­des information from data and surveys collected by the institution from teaching staff and students from the educational center at different stages of application of the virtual model. The study is complemented by the contextual development of higher education in Mexico within the environment of the pandemic, in order to better locate the response of the UAM in front of the university community

Time-domain signal analysis of dielectric response of nonlinear SDBD thruster in near space

The nonlinear time domain response signals of surface dielectric barrier discharge (SDBD) are the basis for studying the energy loss of SDBD thruster. This paper is based on the construction of a double layer lumped parameter circuit model in solid dielectric and discharge plasma regions; based on virtual instrument technology, a test device for AC dielectric characteristics of a nonlinear SDBD thruster was built to obtain the time domain signals of AC voltage and response current. According to the characteristic spectral curve of the voltage and the response current signal in the time domain, the response current is decomposed into resistive current (conduction current) and capacitive current (relaxation current) by an appropriate algorithm. The experimental results show that the response current in the discharge plasma region is mainly the capacitive current, and the peak capacitive current is about 2.9 times of the peak resistance current; Relaxation planned loss is the main form of energy loss in the discharge plasma region. Due to space charge limiting current effect and space charge saturation effect, the static and dynamic resistance of discharge plasma region have platform area and negative resistance characteristics respectively; Both static and dynamic capacitance have negative capacitor characteristics.

Remote Access Greenhouse Automation Application Based On LabVIEW

Various automatic control systems have been established in order to increase the yield of the products to be obtained from the plants grown in the greenhouses. These control systems come into prominence in ensuring the automatic solution of the determined problems by being activated quickly, controlling the temperature and moisture values in the greenhouse and in the stable operation of the system. In this study, remote access greenhouse automation application was performed with the NI MyRIO control card, and system data was monitored and controlled in real time via the Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench (LabVIEW) graphical program. The values of the plants to be grown in the greenhouse such as water, temperature, moisture and appropriate photosynthesis light ratio are measured and determined by the sensors used in the system and shown to the user with the LabVIEW interface program with the NI MyRIO control card.

Intelligent Mechatronics in the Measurement, Identification, and Control of Water Level Systems: A Review and Experiment

In this paper, a unique overview of intelligent machines and mathematical methods designed and developed to measure and to control the water level in industrial or laboratory setups of coupled and cascaded configurations of tanks is made. A systematized and concise overview is made of the mechatronic systems used in the measurement, identification, and control of the water level enumerates, the software used in the associated scientific research, modern techniques and sensors, and mathematical models, as well as analysis and control strategies. The broad overview of applications of the last decade is finalized by a proposition of a control system that is based on a parameter estimation of a new experimental setup, an integral dynamic model of the system, a modern mechatronic machine such as the Watson-Marlow peristaltic pump, the Anderson Negele sensor of level, the NI cRIO-9074 controller, and LabVIEW virtual instrumentation. The results of real experimental tests, exploiting a hybrid proportional control, being improved by a numerically predicted water level, are obtained using a few tools, i.e., the static characteristics, the classical step response, and a new pyramid-shaped step function of a discontinuous path-following reference input, being introduced to evaluate the effectiveness and robustness of the regulation of the level height.

Cloud-Based, Expandable—Reconfigurable Remote Laboratory for Electronic Engineering Experiments

This article describes the design and development of the NI myRIO device-based remote laboratory. The cloud-based, expandable, and reconfigurable remote laboratory is intended to give students access to an online web-based user interface to perform experiments. Multiple myRIO devices are programmed to host several experiments each. A finite state machine is used to select specific experiments, while a single state can contain several. The laboratory web virtual instruments interfaces are hosted on the SystemLink cloud and SystemLink server. A user-friendly interface has been designed to help students to understand important electronic concepts. Virtual and real experiments were fused to give students a wide range of experiments they can access online. The instructor can check outputs of an experiment being executed on the device. Achieving connection between myRIO and SystemLink through global variables and SystemLink ensured that the low-cost device was utilized, and this is suitable for third-world countries’ universities that cannot afford expensive equipment. Students can perform the experiments which have some resemblance to physical execution. The system is expandable in that the number of myRIO devices or number of experiments can be increased to suit changing requirements. The reconfigurability of the system is such that the finite state machine-based coding technique permits only one experiment to be selected, configure the system, and run while other experiments are idle.

Transient measurement of mechatronic multi-parameters and kinetics performances for linear piezoelectric motors

Due to the time-dependent correlations, the measurement and characterization of electronic and mechanical parameters are critical for linear piezoelectric ultrasonic motors (USMs) during the running process. This study constructed a homemade system to measure the electromechanical multi-parameters and kinetics performances agilely, transiently, and synchronously. The principles and structures of the test system were demonstrated based on virtual instrument technology. A signal conditioning circuit is designed and used for physical signal processing, A/D conversion, and transmission. The difference in resonant frequencies was discovered for the synchronization acquisition of mechatronic parameters, and the instantaneous characteristics of electromechanical parameters for SWUM (e.g., driving voltage, input current, thrust force, and speed during the start-up and power-off process) were established based on the experimental data. This study is significant for the measurement/evaluation of the dynamic and transient performances of linear piezoelectric motors and actuators.

Comparison of digital learning barriers in university students

The general objective of the research was to identify the variables that integrate the learning barriers in students at the higher level of the Autonomous University of Coahuila, the methodology used was quantitative, transversal, exploratory, descriptive and explanatory with a comparative and integrational methodical derivation. The collection of responses was carried out from a virtual instrument composed of 23 signalitic variables and 105 variables on a decimal scale of ratio. The sample consisted of 320 subjects, for which a non-probabilistic sample was used through the convenience strategy. The statistical levels that were processed were: frequencies and percentages in addition to comparison. The main results indicated that students are in family contexts within which there is helplessness, disinterest, violence and detachment, which generates limitations and complications that are reflected in the teaching-learning process. The outstanding conclusions are that most of the havoc and complexities for the educational process of the university student come from digital skills, abilities and abilities, which can be said given that tools, platforms and virtual sites have symbolized limitations and arduous obstacles in the generation of student knowledge, as well as.

Virtual Quartz Crystal Microbalance: Bioinspired Resonant Frequency Tracking.

The reference acoustic properties of the quartz crystal used as a resonator are ensured by its high-quality factor (Q-factor). The microbalance of the quartz crystal (QCM) exploits the bulk acoustic properties of the quartz crystal. Turning a network analyzer or impedance analyzer into a QCM with a decent measurement rate is a challenge. The use of a virtual instrument to implement an impedance analyzer (VIA) provides greater flexibility to the virtual QCM. In this paper, VIA's flexibility is exploited for the experimental evaluation of conventional scanning procedures and the influence of associated parameters, in order to identify elements that can lead to a limitation of the performance of a virtual QCM. The results of the experimental investigation justify the use of an innovative and optimized bioinspired scanning procedure to effectively track the serial resonance frequency of the QCM sensor. Variable-resolution spatial sampling of the human retina and the ability of the eye to refocus on the area of interest is the source of bioinspiration for achieving an adaptive virtual QCM. The design methodology and physics are described in detail, and the experimental investigations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed bioinspired scanning procedure.

Knowledge Transfer in Higher Education Institutions Focused on Entrepreneurial Activities of Electronic Instrumentation

Although society, governments and the business sector are increasingly demanding that Higher Academic Centers translate their innovative potential into products and services that affect society, little is known or done about the entrepreneurial skills that both lecturers and students need in the context of electronic engineering academic degrees. Inevitably, the fact that some teachers lack certain skill sets will have a negative impact on some students’ professional careers. This article demonstrates a range of initiatives in knowledge transfer which have been carried out over more than 30 years by the university research team making the proposal. Such initiatives have allowed the integration of, not only creative thinking, but also other skills differing from traditional teaching and which can help students to successfully compete for jobs requiring higher qualifications. Following the methodology of a case study within the framework of the Polytechnic University School of Vilanova i la Geltrú (EPSEVG) of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), the novelty of the research lies in its focus on the results obtained. In the 1990s, entrepreneurial initiatives encouraged the creation of reference laboratories and the teaching of innovative subjects in the field of virtual instrumentation. Years later, this teaching activity would be complemented by the launch of lines of research/technology transfer. It should be noted that, in its initial stages, this entrepreneurial trajectory was characterized by limited material and human resources, but thanks to the discovery of little-explored areas of activity (niches), opting for working in cooperation networks (science-technology symbiosis), and the entrepreneurial profile of the members of the research team, it has been possible to gain a space in the research/development of marine technologies in the national and European context, as stated in the text. This empirical research has contributed significantly to shaping a new degree in Marine Sciences and Technologies. Likewise, the results of this study reveal that a significant number of electronic engineering students have acquired entrepreneurial skills by engaging in teaching and research and development activities in different Higher Academic Centers.

Preface

Advances in Mechanical Engineering in both fundamentals and applied research are going to facilitate the new digital era of automated machines & manufacturing processes to expedite local socio-economic development. These advances are going to be integrated in the near future for development of new manufacturing processes and new digital automated world. They will be important part of the automotive technology, advance machining processes, renewable energy sources, IOT based mechanical controls, aviation technology & electric vehicles etc. However, advance design and analysis methods, bio medical implant’s by additive manufacturing, advance materials, MEMS, advances in propulsions and power concepts, advance aerodynamics and CFD, FEA optimization, vibration and acoustics, virtual instrumentation with IOT, robotics are key challenges, and they need to be solved through advances in Mechanical engineering through focused and integrated efforts with the use of smart technologies. These advance technologies performs an important role in the ‘Digital Technology Transformation’ to integrate environmental friendly Mechanical systems (e.g. Industry Automation, Advance Energy conversion, Robotics, New Modeling and simulation methods etc.) for the sustainable development. The necessity for ‘Advance Mechanical systems’ is broadly understood and shared, as the world starts to embrace a transition towards new methods and technology for sustainable development in Industry 4.0. As the Editors of the Proceeding of ICAME-2022 in IOP Conference series Material Science & Engineering Journal (ISSN: 1757-899X), we wish to express sincere gratitude to the authors for diligent research dissemination as well as to the reviewers for providing constructive and critical comments in improving the quality of the selected articles. The objective of this volume is to present advancements in advance technologies for environment friendly automation systems and their management, policies for making an energy transition towards sustainable societies. The ICAME-2022 is a major multidisciplinary sustainable engineering conference organized with the objective of bringing together academia, industry practitioners and engineering graduates to analyze scientific studies focusing on advance mechanical system design and analysis with IOT controls and smart material concepts to integrate the relationship among them. The ICAME-2022 is envisioned to analyze the increasing penetration of environment friendly technologies with energy efficiency and management as central topics with effective participation from the academicians, industry practitioners, governmental policy makers, as well as of community service providers. The ICAME-2022 has been jointly organized by G H Raisoni College of Engineering (GHRCE) Nagpur & G H Raisoni Institute of Engineering Technology (GHRIET)Nagpur, India on 27-28 May 2022. As editor(s) of this ICAME-2022, we want to tribute deep sense of appreciations to the international Publishing agency IOP Science for acceptance of our presented papers in IOP Conference Series, Material Science & Engineering Journal. We wish to express our sincere appreciation to the authors, plenary speakers, presenters, participants, supporters, reviewers, technical committee members as well as the entire team of G. H. Raisoni College of Engineering(GHRCE), Nagpur & G H Raisoni Institute of Engineering & Technology(GHRIET), Nagpur(INDIA). We are very grateful to Shri Sunil Raisoni, Chairperson of the Raisoni Group of Institutions; Dr. Sachin Untawale, Director, GHRCE, Nagpur; Dr. Vivek Kapur, Director, GHRIET, Nagpur, Dr. P.V. Walke, Dr. S.B. Jaju, Dr. R.S. Shelke, Dr. Vinod Bhaiswar, Dr. Abhay Khalatkar, Dr. Dheeraj Deshmukh, Dr. A. S.Raut, Mr. Amol Pitale, Dr.A.K. Mahalle, Dr. Manish Gupta, Dr. V. W. Khond, Mr. T.C. Parshiwankar, Dr. A. S. Shahare and the ICAME-2022 organizing committee members for contributing effectively in making the ICAME-2022 and publication of the volume in IOP Proceedings successful. We strongly believe that the ICAME-2022 has provided an effective platform to integrate academia, industry practitioners and engineering graduates to share their research and innovations for the sustainable development of the society.

Design and simulation of vehicle vibration test based on virtual reality technology

Abstract When a car is operating, the road roughness will cause it to vibrate. When this vibration reaches a particular threshold, the driver will get uncomfortable and fatigued, affecting the bearing system’s durability and longevity. The vehicle vibration virtual test system’s framework design and implementation approach is based on virtual reality (VR), and it is made up of a VR subsystem, a model subsystem, and a virtual instrument subsystem. A virtual car vibration test system based on VR is built, and the results of the virtual vehicle vibration test are reported. The findings indicate that the virtual test (VT) technology theoretical model pertains to the creation of VT systems for car vibration based on VR. Users may monitor the vehicle vibration as well as its time domain and frequency domain signals in three separate observation modes using the system.

Development of semi-automatic recalibration system and curve-fit models for smart soil moisture sensor

Reliable measurement of soil moisture is one of the primary requirements for agriculture, irrigation management, and the study of soil–water dynamics. To improve the accuracy of a smart soil moisture sensor beyond the manufacturer's calibration, there is a need for soil-specific recalibration and improved sensor models. This paper discusses the development of a semi-automatic virtual instrumentation system integrated with a standard gravimetric method for soil-specific recalibration of a relatively new, low-cost capacitive soil moisture sensor, SoilWatch 10, in loamy–sandy soil. Using dual sensor with confidence-weighted averaging sensor fusion method, variance in the raw sensor readings is minimized. Further, the pre-processed recalibration data is used to develop linear, polynomial, and optimized 3-layer FFBP-NN (feedforward backpropagation neural network) direct and inverse models of the sensor. Performance evaluation of the models indicate that goodness of fit and accuracy of the FBNN models is the highest, followed by the polynomial and linear models.

Application of Virtual Instrument Technology in the Teaching of Embedded System Course

The development of information technology has brought tremendous changes to our lives. It has applications in industry, agriculture, and other fields, especially in the education industry. Virtual instrument technology is a new technology that combines computer and electronic instruments. It not only has low application cost but also has excellent performance. It can be used for measurement analysis, experimental simulation, and other applications, and it can also play a great role in course teaching. Based on this, this paper proposes the application research of virtual instrument technology in embedded system course teaching. This article adopts the method of literature data, questionnaire survey, and mathematical statistical analysis to design a research experiment of embedded system course teaching application based on virtual instrument technology and compare and analyze the results of the control group and the experimental group. The average score difference between the experimental group and the control group in the embedded system course is 3.62 points, especially in the practice score. The practice score of the control group is 58.34 points, while the practice score of the experimental group is 85.22 points, which fully explains virtual reality. With the aid of instrument technology, the embedded course teaching of the experimental group has obtained more practical opportunities; the students’ hands-on experiment ability is also stronger; and the overall learning effect is better.

Haptically enhanced VR surgical training system

Abstract This paper proposes a cost-effective VR surgical training system which computes haptic feedback forces when a VR surgical tool interacts with virtual tissues. A 3 degrees of freedom (DoF) reverse linear Delta mechanism is used to render computed force feedback data which are then received by the fingertip of the operator. Additionally, the moving plate allows rendering of surface properties and lateral forces occurring due to a tumor with different stiffness parameters below the skin surface. Controllers are designed and implemented to regulate the haptic feedback device’s end-effector position and applied force. The virtual surgical instruments are controlled by a 7DoF serial link manipulator which captures the operator’s movement by the utilization of various sensors. The controllers to regulate forces as well as the positions are evaluated with the proposed haptic feedback device. The mean RMSE of the force and mean error of the angular displacement are 0.0707 N and 1.95°, respectively. The presented system can provide multisensory feedback including visual, auditory and haptic feedback interactively depending on the operator’s input in the presented VR surgical training system.

基于虚拟仪器技术的中华绒螯蟹养殖监控系统设计与试验

The measurement and control system of Eriocheir sinensis, the Chinese mitten crab, could increase its survival rate and quality effectively. Based on the analysis and design of the system, the parameter ranges for major factors of water quality during crab breeding process were determined. Sensors of pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), and temperature were used to detect the value of pH, DO, and temperature. LabVIEW, a virtual instrument technology, was used to monitor water quality parameters during crab breeding process, thereby controlling the relay of inlet valve, water valve and oxygen valve by comparing the actual figures with normal parameter. This technology was used to perform the adjustment of water quality parameters respectively to achieve automatic control. In order to test the performance of the system, the monitoring time, stocking density and planting density were taken as experiment factors, and the error rate of the monitoring index was taken as evaluation index. The verification experiment results show that pH, DO and temperature monitoring errors were less than 10%, under the maximum constraint conditions of experiment factors, which meet the design requirements.