Virtual Instrument Systems In Reality Research Articles

Development of a Low-Cost Remote Lab Concept for Electronic Engineering Education Based on NI myDAQ and NI ELVIS

Lab work and exercises are an essential part of Electronic Engineering Education as it improves understanding of the theoretical concepts. Remote Labs like VISIR (Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality) can supplement the learning process but are limited to a small set of components. Therefore, experiments with VISIR should be combined with prepared and fixed circuits.<br />This work presents an approach, where in the first step new exercises are de-veloped with the NI ELVIS platform, and later implemented with the much more cost-effective NI myDAQ platform. In general, the entire system is very inexpen-sive and scaleable, since a single PC can act as a host for a wide number of exer-cise boards, each of which is connected via a myDAQ.

A Federation of Remote Laboratory OERs: Grid of VISIR systems through PILAR Project

Today's educational needs require tools with neither geographical nor temporal restrictions. These tools also have to help students to reach the knowledge and provide them with the skills that the labor market demands. To achieve this goal, the technical areas rely on the contribution that laboratory practices provide. However, traditional laboratory practices, carried out in person at the institution, are limited due to the requirements of both their exploitation and their provision. For this reason, educational institutions have opted for remote laboratories (RLs) as the educational tool to provide the benefits of experimentation in real environments, either as an accompaniment to face-to-face activity or as the only mean of experimentation in real environments. Although RLs provide exclusive benefits <<24/7 availability, integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ITCs), etc.>>, they also present limitations derived from the technology involved <<hardware and software>>; PILAR project << Platform Integration of Laboratories based on the Architecture of VISIR>> was conceived under this premise. PILAR proposes a federation of 5 Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality (VISIR) systems. VISIR is a RL for wiring and measuring electrical and electronics circuits in a simulated workbench. PILAR aims to create a grid of laboratories shared and accessed by all participants, expanding and empowering the existing systems to a new level of service and capacity.

Spreading Remote Laboratory Scope Through a Federation of Nodes: VISIR Case

New social learning demands are fostered by continuous learning culture and self-learning environments. This demanding scenario requires ubiquitous educational environments without temporal restrictions. For these reasons, educational institutions increasingly rely on remote laboratories (RLs) as educational tools in order to provide real-world experiences in science education. RLs present several advantages to students which have been widely reported. Although quite powerful, RLs have intrinsically some drawbacks. While some of these drawbacks are inherent to the remote interaction and cannot be addressed, such as the impossibility to provide manual skill, many others derive from technical constraints. Traditionally, the approach to deal with these limitations on the performance is based on the redesign and improvement of the RL. However, due to the number of operating systems, an alternative approach is open for a RL: Virtual Instruments System in Reality (VISIR). VISIR is a RL designed to construct and test electrical/electronic circuits. The possibility of building a federation of VISIR nodes emerged from the actual needs detected by the VISIR community. In this paper, we describe a federation of VISIR nodes reporting the architecture implemented for the federation and the integration of the resulting federated resources into the different learning environments provided by the institutions to their students.

Empirical Analysis of the Use of the VISIR Remote Lab in Teaching Analog Electronics

Remote laboratories give students the opportunity of experimenting in STEM by using the Internet to control and measure an experimental setting. Remote laboratories are increasingly used in the classroom to complement, or substitute for, hands-on laboratories, so it is important to know its learning value. While many authors approach this question through qualitative analyses, this paper reports a replicated quantitative study that evaluates the teaching performance of one of these resources, the virtual instrument systems in reality (VISIR) remote laboratory. VISIR, described here, is the most popular remote laboratory for basic analog electronics. This paper hypothesizes that use of a remote laboratory has a positive effect on students’ learning process. This report analyzes the effect of the use of VISIR in five different groups of students from two different academic years (2013–2014 and 2014–2015), with three teachers and at two educational levels. The empirical experience focuses on Ohm’s Law. The results obtained are reported using a pretest and post-test design. The tests were carefully designed and analyzed, and their reliability and validity were assessed. The analysis of knowledge test question results shows that the post-test scores are higher that the pretest. The difference is significant according to Wilcoxon test ( ${p} ), and produces a Cohen effect size of 1.0. The VISIR remote laboratory’s positive effect on students’ learning processes indicates that remote laboratories can produce a positive effect in students’ learning if an appropriate activity is used.

Using UML Models to Describe the VISIR System

Analysis and design are important phases in the system development lifecycle. In these phases, developers record information necessary for properly understanding the nature of the systems under consideration.We consider a particular type of system, named Remote Lab that allows both teachers and students to perform real experiments over the internet and we focus on Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality (VISIR). We describe a summarized web interface of VISIR using the Unified Modeling Language (UML). Our case study aims at identifying the requirements of VISIR and at creating a set of UML diagrams that succinctly provide enough information to both developers and users so that they acquire enough information for building a general understanding of it. Additionally, we provide elements for extending UML to better support further user interface development in VISIR.

Online Experiments With DC/DC Converters Using the VISIR Remote Laboratory

This paper shows the development of two new experimental exercises that are at the top of the state-of-the-art platforms for setting up, wiring, and measuring electronic circuits online, virtual instrument systems in reality (VISIR), allowing: 1) non-isolated linear regulated dc/dc converter and 2) non-isolated switching-regulated dc/dc converter. Those experiments are part of a new setup in the VISIR oriented to master as well as experienced students and users that would like to increase their experience in industrial electronics and power components management. The development of the two experiments is explained along with the necessary configuration to the core-platform VISIR. This is preceded by a brief overview of VISIR, including its hardware and software components. Finally, the remote experimental results obtained are presented.

Impact of different Moodle Course Designs on Students' Performance

This work describes the impact of different teachers’ approaches in using Moodle, for supporting their courses, at the Polytechnic of Porto - School of Engineering. The study covers five different courses, from different degrees and different years, and includes a number of Moodle resources especially supporting laboratory classes. These and other active resources are particularly analyzed in order to evaluate students’ adherence to them. One particular course includes a number of remote experiments, made available through VISIR (Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality) and directly accessible through links included in the Moodle course page. The collected data have been correlated with students’ classifications in the lab component and in the exam, each one weighting 50% of their final marks. This analysis benefited from the existence of different teachers’ approaches, which resulted in a diversity of Moodle-supported environments. Conclusions point to the existence of a positive correlation factor between the number of Moodle accesses and the final exam grade, although the quality of the resources made available by the teachers seems to be preponderant over its quantity. In addition, different students perspectives were found regarding active resources: while some seem to encourage students to participate (for instance online quiz or online reports), others, more demanding, are unable to stimulate the majority of them.

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.

Using an Online Remote Laboratory for Electrical Experiments in Upper Secondary Education

The use of remote laboratories in courses at university level has been reported in literature numerous times since the mid 90â??s. In this article focus is on activities carried out by teachers and students, at the Upper Secondary School Level, using the remote laboratory VISIR (Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality). The Upper Secondary School, Katedralskolan in Lund, Sweden, cooperate with Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden, in a project that concerns the introduction of remote laboratory environment suitable for Upper Secondary School science courses. A remote laboratory in electronics has been introduced and is used as a complement to the traditional workbench in the hands-on laboratory. Significant results from the project are; 1) the great interest shown by the students for the remote experiments, 2) the students appreciation for the fact that it was not simulations but actual real experiments, 3) the remote laboratory is easy to implement for use by both teachers and students and 4) it can be used simultaneously by many students.

VISIR: Experiences and Challenges

It is of crucial importance the integration of practical sessions in engineering curricula owing to their significant role in understanding engineering concepts and scientific phenomena. However, the lack of practical sessions due to the high costs of the equipment and the unavailability of instructors has caused a significant declination in experimentation in engineering education. Remote laboratories have tackled this issues providing online reusable and shared workbenches unconstrained by neither geographical nor time considerations. Thereby, they have extremely proliferated among universities and integrated into engineering curricula over the last decade. This contribution compiles diverse experiences based on the deployment of the remote laboratory, Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality (VISIR), on the practices of undergraduate engineering grades at various universities within the VISIR community. It aims to show the impact of its usage on engineering education concerning the assessments of students and teachers as well. In addition, the paper address the next challenges and future works carried out at several universities within the VISIR community.

Using VISIR: Experiments, Subjects and Students

The paper presents the results of applying the VISIR (Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality) system at the course of analog electronics for various degrees of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Deusto (Spain). The efficiency of the VISIR had been monitored during past three years. Studentsâ?? feedback was collected and analyzed. The research shows: 1) VISIR system is functional and useful learning instrument; 2) teacher experience at VISIR plays crucial role in its integration into student experimentation activities; 3) students get best knowledge and skills in the analog electronics from combination of experiments at traditional laboratory and remote lab/ VISIR.

On Objectives of Instructional Laboratories, Individual Assessment, and Use of Collaborative Remote Laboratories

Three key issues should be addressed to enable universities to deliver engineers who have a solid documented laboratory experience enabling them to design goods and services complying with the requirements of a sustainable society. First, introduce learning objectives of engineering instructional laboratories in courses including laboratory components. Second, implement individual student assessment. Third, introduce free access to online experimental resources as a supplement to the equipment in traditional laboratories. Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) in Sweden and the University of South Australia (UniSA) have created online laboratory workbenches for electrical experiments that mimic traditional ones by combining virtual and physical reality. Online workbenches not only supplement traditional ones, but they can also be used for low-cost individual assessment. BTH has started a project disseminating the BTH workbench concept, The Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality (VISIR) Open Laboratory Platform, and invites other universities to set up replicas and participate in further development and standardization. Further, online workbenches offer additional learning possibilities. UniSA has started a project where students located in different countries can perform experiments together as a way to enhance the participants' intercultural competence. This paper discusses online laboratory workbenches and their role in an engineering education appropriate for a sustainable society.