A Remote-Control Engineering Laboratory

In this paper, a networked control-system laboratory for the remote control of processes is presented. The laboratory allows the students to develop network-based control systems with the use of an architecture consisting of I/O devices, communication modules, and server-client applications implemented with supervisory control and data acquisition environment facilities, and to operate on real pilot plants through an intranet and the Internet. Three examples were presented, demonstrating the potentiality of the laboratory to remotely control the processes and to develop new network-based control-system structures.     

基于LabVIEW的高职电子远程实验开发

本课题应用虚拟仪器技术,采用LabVIEW 9.0作为开发工具,构建了一个适合高职电子专业学生远程使用的实验平台。文中重点讨论了远程实验平台的总体框架、实验项目的开发与集成、实验平台网络通信的实现方法。学生使用浏览器或“连接至远程前面板”方式完成实验。此种模式突破了传统实验的时空限制,对于充分利用教学资源、更大程度地实现资源共享具有重要意义。     

ENEL PILOT: From a Research Testbed to a Virtual Educational Laboratory

Education in the field of distributed process control and intelligent actuation and measurement (IAM) systems can be greatly enhanced through the use of tools that simulate the behavior of real systems, thus allowing students to test and compare different configurations. In this paper, we present an educational virtual laboratory, called the IAM-Pilot Virtual Laboratory (IPVL), which simulates a physical process consisting of a closed circuit of treated water implementing four regulation loops for pressure, level, flow, and temperature, respectively. This tool is the virtual implementation of a real research laboratory (IAM-Pilot), which was developed a few years ago in the framework of several projects funded by the European Commission, in order to test concepts regarding distributed systems, technologies, and components. The tool allows students to set several different system configurations, both in the control and communication parts, and then assess the resulting behavior. They can also install on the plant different virtual devices, with different features, and monitor their effect on the system. The tool produces graphs that allow students to evaluate the performance offered by the control system. This paper describes the architecture and implementation of the IPVL and reports on its usage in the context of the distributed process control network course at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Catania.      

On the Evolution of Remote Laboratories for Prototyping Digital Electronic Systems

The design of digital electronic systems for industrial applications can benefit in many ways from the prototyping capabilities of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) platforms. This paper presents three evolutionary releases of an FPGA-based remote laboratory and discusses the didactical and technical motivations behind each release, aiming to reduce the overhead of setting up and operate a laboratory environment where designers and students can use FPGA prototyping to validate their designs. To achieve that, a number of abstraction layers were introduced, allowing configuration and data processing in remote FPGA platforms, as well as integrating such platforms within a simulation environment. The proposed approach supported a number of projects where groups of designers and students could specify, refine, and prototype electronic systems using a pool of remotely available FPGA platforms.     

A web-based virtual laboratory on a frequency modulation experiment

With the rapid proliferation of Internet technologies, accessing and operating engineering instruments remotely anytime anywhere is fast becoming a reality. This paper presents a new Web-based virtual laboratory on a frequency modulation experiment for the teaching of an undergraduate course on communication principles in the National University of Singapore (NUS). The laboratory requires only a common Web browser to access and incorporate schemes for reducing data traffic and authenticating users. It enables students to have a natural hands-on experience of using an expensive spectrum analyzer on a one-to-one basis and provides a solution for distant engineering education. The system uses a double client-server structure where access to the experiment is via two rounds of client-server processing. The virtual laboratory can be accessed at the Web site http://vlab.ee.nus.edu.sg/vlab/freqmod/index.html     

Re-engineering engineering education

For years, companies have complained that new engineering graduates fall short on the practical engineering skills that would make them more productive in the real world. Here, the author describes how industry is helping to redesign the education of engineers by sponsoring student projects, supplying laboratory instruments and procedures, and giving seminars on the latest technologies at faculty workshops     

A mechatronics educational laboratory – Programmable logic controllers and material handling experiments

The integration of robotics, conveyors, sensors, and programmable logic controllers into manufacturing and material handling processes requires engineers with technical skills and expertise in these systems. The coordination of assembly operations and supervisory control demands familiarity with mechanical and electrical design, instrumentation, actuators, and computer programming for successful system development. This paper presents an educational mechatronics laboratory that encourages multi-disciplinary hands-on engineering discovery within team settings. Three focused progressive experiments are reviewed that allow students to program and operate a programmable logic controller, a traditional conveyor system, and a distributed servo-motor based conveyor. The students also program and implement two robotic arms for material handling applications. The equipment, learning objectives, and experimental methodology for each laboratory are discussed to offer insight. A collaborative design project case study is presented in which student teams create a smart material handling system. Overall, engineering graduates have generally been required to learn material handling and other multi-disciplinary concepts in the field, and therefore, a well-rounded engineering curriculum should incorporate mechatronics in both the classroom and laboratory.     

Distance-Learning Power-System Protection Based on Testing Protective Relays

The study of power system of relays requires some previous experience in this field. Laboratories focusing on teaching and researching the area of power-system protection have therefore been amply reported. However, these facilities require the actual presence of the students in the laboratories. To overcome this problem, a power-system-relaying remote laboratory has been developed. To implement this laboratory, a testing system of the relay operating characteristic, together with Matlab-based software, was developed. This remote laboratory enables real power-system-relaying experiments through the Internet. In fact, the user can remotely test a real relay disoperation. This system will therefore allow proficient analysis of sensitivities to relay settings and network configurations.     

Remote Programming of Network Robots Within the UJI Industrial Robotics Telelaboratory: FPGA Vision and SNRP Network Protocol

This paper presents the UJI Industrial Robotics Telelaboratory, which lets Ph.D. and Master's degree students perform robotics and computer vision tele-experiments. By using this system, students are able to program experiments remotely via the Web, in order to combine the use of a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to provide real-time vision processing, a conveyor belt, and a Motoman industrial manipulator. This paper introduces the novel SNRP protocol (i.e., Simple Network Robot Protocol), which permits the integration of network robots and sensors within an e-learning platform in a simple and reliable manner. As long as the students are able to interact remotely with a real robotic scenario, this system helps students very much to learn robotics control techniques like visual servoing control, vision for industrial applications, and robotics manipulation. The various components of the system are connected via a 100BaseT Ethernet network and follow the SNRP protocol, which grants simple access to generic networked devices using enhanced HTTP-based connections. Moreover, the whole telelaboratory is connected to the Internet through a router that permits the user to control the networked devices according to security constraints. The SNRP architecture is compared with a Common Object Request Broker Architecture-based approach, which was used in a previous telelaboratory. This paper describes two principle contributions: the design of a novel SNRP network architecture for the intercommunication of robots and sensors within an e-learning telelaboratory and the integration of a programmable FPGA vision system, which allows students to learn not only robotic techniques but also the design of high-performance circuits for industrial vision applications.      

基于HMI与PLC的变频调速系统的设计

介绍了触摸屏在交流变频调速系统的应用与发展,阐述了应用于实验室教学活动中的触摸屏在可编程控制器(PLC)控制变频器完成多段速和无级调速两种速度控制模式中的应用。实际运行证明,该系统成本低,运行可靠,柔性强,响应速度快,安全性较高,对学生掌握工控中简单系统的建立有着很好的启发作用,具有很好的教学效果。     

Online Competitions: An Open Space to Improve the Learning Process

Experimentation and practical work, which are usually accomplished in a laboratory, are the basics of technological fields. Laboratory activities enable students to acquire methodologies, work habits, knowledge, and experience of equipment operation, in conditions as near as possible to their future professional activities. The evolution of communication and information technologies opens new possibilities in educational methods. This article describes a project that aims to facilitate the use of real robots in an educational laboratory via Web, allowing users to learn different robotics aspects while performing a competition. Students can remotely program several robots to participate in games to accomplish a set of goals in a remote stadium (the RoboStadium). To facilitate the use of robots, the online robot stadium provides a set of training resources. Having these resources, previous knowledge on robotics is not required to use the system. Since robotics is a multidisciplinary field (mechanics, electronics, control, mathematics, computers, etc.), students of different degrees can take advantage of the presented system. Researchers of two Spanish universities are participating in this project, which provides robotics telelaboratories via Web.     

基于项目管理体系的《单片机综合实验》实践教学方法探讨

随着我国工业化进程的不断推进,中国已迈进世界制造业大国的行列。大规模、集约化的自动生产线越来越多地被应用于制造业,由此带来了生产制造加工能力的极大提升。单片机是工业自动化广为应用的基础设备,随着行业发展,具有较强单片机开发能力和项目管理能力的工程界人才的需求日益增大,因此探索一条利用高等教育为工业企业培养实用型人才的道路显得尤为重要。基于此,在自动化专业本科大四阶段增设一门基于项目管理形式的单片机综合实验实践类课程成为探讨的重点。在课程的组织形式上,采用小班实验室授课模式,在课程实施阶段采用“一对多”与“一对一”相结合的模式,并引入“5W2H”项目管理法。通过上述课程实施,可使学生获得与工业项目结合紧密的专业训练,使学生今后独立承接项目时,能够快速进入角色,真正做到课堂所学与实际应用的无缝衔接。     

A Remote Laboratory in Engineering Measurement

Online engineering practice is offering nowadays new potentials for training of measurement technologies and experimental procedures. In a laboratory mainly devoted to Instrumentation for Measurement by hands-on activity in engineering fields, students and engineering professionals are using, at present, online experiments in a blended-learning approach. A set of experiments has been designed and developed as well as some virtual simulators. The experiments integrated in a Moodle platform are using a web-server system based on LabVIEW 7.1, linked to them by data acquisition interface cards, a video server, and a booking system developed as an extension of the Moodle platform. This paper reports a particular setup specially designed for remotely measuring and determining mechanical material properties and its combination with the design of a highly interactive user interface. The user may remotely conduct the experiment, getting numerical, graphical, and live video output information and receiving e-mailed experimental results.      

Virtual access hydraulic experiment for system dynamics and controls education

A Virtual Access Laboratory (VAL) for undergraduates is currently being built at Georgia Tech. This laboratory will house a three-degree of freedom, hydraulically actuated device resembling a fork lift truck. Experiments with the hydraulic equipment can be run remotely via the Internet. Such an experimental apparatus will give students exposure to hydraulics, technology that is used expansively in industry, yet lightly treated in most US undergraduate engineering curricula. The software responsible for providing the user interface and controlling the manipulator is comprised of both client and server programs that communicate via the Internet. The client code is written in Java and features a Graphical User Interface to provide a user-friendly environment for students. Code for the server is written in C++ to run on Windows NT with Hyperkernel for deterministic real-time control. This code will offer the students the ability to run experiments such as system identification, PID control, and trajectory planning. A camera monitors the system and provides students with visual data.     

The internationalization of engineering education: a tale of two countries

Two international exchange programs in engineering between universities in Japan and Canada, are described in order to explain the significant benefits gained by the undergraduate and graduate students, as well as the academic staff who participate, and to highlight key principles generally followed in the design and execution of exchange programs. One notable and successful engineering exchange program is between the University of Waterloo, located in Southern Ontario, Canada, and Tottori University in Japan, while the other is between the University of Waterloo and Kyoto University in Japan. Both of these programs include foreign students taking courses for credit or audit at the host university, and, for the case of graduate students, also receiving guidance in their research. Moreover, upon completion of one academic semester in Japan, all of the undergraduate Waterloo students studying at Tottori University are employed in Japanese industry for three to four months before returning to Canada. Of paramount importance to the education of the participating undergraduate and graduate students is the opportunity to learn, by first-hand experience, the language and culture of a foreign country. In fact, one of the key findings of a survey completed by Canadian and Japanese students who took part in the exchange programs, is that living in a different culture greatly enhanced their own personal development. The addition of this international perspective to a solid education in engineering opens many doors of opportunity for exchange program alumni, who are well prepared to fully participate in the global marketplace of the 21st century, and to assist society in responsibly reaching an equitable and sustainable future.     

Design-oriented DSP courseware-hardware, software, and simulation

Strategies and tactics for teaching DSP at CalTech are discussed, and the role of design-oriented courses in undergraduate engineering education is briefly considered. Courseware for an applications-oriented course and design laboratory for advanced undergraduate student is described. Several projects carried out by students and the products developed and created by them are presented to illustrate students' performance     

科研能力训练在“交流电机系统分析”中应用的案例设计

“交流电机系统分析”是电气工程研究生的专业核心课。为了加强对工科研究生科研创新能力的培养,在课程教学中引入工程教育理念,将课程教学内容与电机研究前沿和热点有机结合。设计一系列科研能力训练工程项目——满足某些特定性能要求的交流电机及系统的仿真与设计,并在3轮教学中顺利实施。实践证明这种科研能力训练教学模式对培养和提高工科研究生的科研创新能力,增强其团队合作能力有重要的作用。     

Self-selective multi-objective robot vision projects for students of different capabilities

Over the last decade or two, project experience has received increasing attention in engineering education. Many engineering departments now use projects as a central part of their education course. In mechatronics education, for example, the techniques and knowledge of several different disciplines need to be synergistically combined, and students acquire practical skills by participating in various interdisciplinary projects. However, it is not easy for an instructor to manage a project efficiently, particularly if the project is assigned to upper year college students because they can have significantly different levels of ability. To overcome this problem, we propose a multi-objective project scheme. A project is arranged to have multiple small objectives with different difficulty levels, and each student selects one objective that he or she thinks can be achieved – there is a trade-off between the difficulty level of an objective that a student selects and the maximum score that he or she can obtain. The instructor’s evaluation and advice can then be given to students according to their individual capabilities (which is implied by the selected objective). In this way, every student can actively participate in the project, and the approach enables most students to produce successful results. The proposed project management scheme can be implemented in a parallel or serial structure. Both structures were tried with robot vision projects for junior students majoring in Electronic Control Engineering at Daegu University, South Korea. We found that the project scheme provides enhanced engineering education as well as increased student engagement and motivation.     

A computer-network-supported cooperative distance learning systemfor technical communication education

The paper discusses applying computer networks to cooperative distance learning for technical communication education. It first outlines applications of communication technologies employed in distance learning, and describes the design strategies of the applications. The paper's main focus is on the CORAL (Cooperative Remotely Accessible Learning) system for promoting cooperative distance learning currently under development in Taiwan. The CORAL system is a collective and collaborative project intended to integrate four major components in concept and construction: an interactive learning environment, educational foundations and implications, domain knowledge; and research efforts. One of CORAL system's goals is to aid science and engineering students in learning communication technology courseware. The CORAL development process, including its design approach, structure, courseware, and evaluation, is reported. Research issues are also addressed     

Laboratory Projects for Engineering Students with FPGA

This paper proposes a series of related laboratory projects to the image processing area through reconfigurable integrated circuits like FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). With the implementation of these projects, the students will not only develop skills in electronic design, they also will increase their knowledge as engineers, with the integration of electronic engineering and computer science in the design of reconfigurable hardware with FPGA's. The algorithms proposed in these laboratory projects, for the image processing, are coded in C++ and are implemented in the embedded microcontroller Microblaze.