Introducing instrumentation and data acquisition to mechanical engineering students using LabVIEW

For several years, LabVIEW has been used within the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde as the basis for introducing the basic concepts and practice of data acquisition, and more generally, instrumentation, to postgraduate engineering students and undergraduate project students. The objectives of introducing LabVIEW within the curriculum were to expose students to instrumentation and experimental analysis, and to create courseware that could be used flexibly for a range of students. It was also important that staff time for laboratory work be kept to manageable levels. A course module was developed which allows engineering students with very little or no previous knowledge of instrumentation or programming to become acquainted with the basics of programming, experimentation and data acquisition. The basic course structure has been used to teach both undergraduates and postgraduates as well as laboratory technical staff. The paper describes the objectives of the use of LabVIEW for teaching, the structure of the module developed, and the response of students who have been subjected to the course, and how it is intended to expand the delivery to greater student numbers

Real-Time Video Analysis in Agriculture by Using LabVIEW Software

Technological developments help us to make our lives easier, such as video analysis systems. Because of that reason, these systems are commonly used in different fields. So, this kind of applications is rising these days. There are two important factors for widespread of this technology. The first factor is an increase of video capture performances at video processing units, and the second factor is decrease in prices of the video processing units. In this chapter, some general information is given about video processing technique and the information held by a LabVIEW application. As LabVIEW application, finger anthropometric measurements have been performed by utilizing the video analysis technique for agricultural machinery and instrument evolution. At the application, real-time anthropometric measurements have been done from instantly obtained video images. Real-time anthropometric measurements of video images were obtained from Ankara University Faculty of Agriculture students by using LabVIEW software. To check result accuracy, the obtained value was compared with the caliper measurements. After that differences between the results were examined statistically. In the performed study, all real-time video image values show that this system can be used effectively for real-time anthropometric measurements

Overview of modern teaching equipment that supports distant learning

Laboratory is a key element of engineering and applied sciences educational systems. With the development of Internet and connecting IT technologies, the appearance of remote laboratories was inevitable. Virtual laboratories are also available; they place the experiment in a simulated environment. However, this writing focuses on remote experiments not virtual ones. From the students’ point of view, it is a great help not only for those enrolling in distant or online courses but also for those studying in a more traditional way. With the spread of smart, portable devices capable of connection to the internet, students can expand or restructure time spent on studying. This is a huge help to them and also allows them to individually divide their time up, to learn how to self-study. This independent approach can prepare them for working environments. It offers flexibility and convenience to the students. From the universities’ point of view, it helps reduce maintenance costs and universities can share experiments which also helps the not so well-resourced educational facilities

Internet-based monitoring and controlling of real-time dynamic systems

The study in this report mainly focuses on the Internet-based Monitoring and Controlling of a Real-Time Dynamic System interfaced via a dedicated local computer. The main philosophy behind this study is to allow the remote user to conduct an Internet-based Remote Operation (I-bRO) for the dynamic system. The dynamic system has been defined as the system which has its parts interrelated in such a way that a change in one part necessarily affects other parts of the system [I]. In order to achieve this goal, the study has been conducted in a form of an on-line and real-time Virtual Laboratory (VL). Through this form of laboratory, a user can carry out the experiment, perform real-time monitoring and controlling operations of the experiment and collect real and live data from the experiment through the network link as the user was physically in the laboratory. The dynamic system that has been selected for the test-rig of this study is a 3-phase Induction Motor (IM) which is mechanically coupled with a DC-Dynamometer that acts as a variable load to the IM. This system is a common laboratory experiment in the study of the Electrical Engineering for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. The study covers both sides of the I-bRO; the hardware and the software. The hardware side includes the design and the development of a load control box that has been used to interface the DC-Dynamometer and consequently control it from the local computer. The software side covers the design and the development of the Virtual Instrumentation System (VIS) that has replaced successfully the physical Measurement and Test (M&T) instruments of the test-rig. Beside that, the software side includes the development of the internet remote front panel for the remote operation.Furthermore, the software side includes the development of the software that has been used to analyse the system during the I-bRO. In this study, the LabVTEW7 program has been used to design and develop the VIS and the Matlab program has bee used to aualyse the system performance for the remote operations. This study also addresses the issues and problems related to the intranet or the internet to be used as the network for data communication between the test-rig and remote users. This study has been carried out in different stages as follows: 1. Designing and development of the VIS. 2. Interfacing the test-rig apparatus with a local computer. 3. Upload the system from the local computer to the network. 4. Study the performance of the system on the network for the purpose of the remote operations controlled over the internet. The developed system of this study has been used for data acquisition, network communications, instruments monitoring and controlling applications. A user can execute on-line and in the real-time the developed VIS from any point in the university. Due to the fact that the university network is directly integrated to the main internet server. a remote user through the main internet server is able to perform I-bRO of the selected dynamic system. There are many factors associated with the network, the internet or the intranet, and have direct influences on the control system performance throughout the remote operations. The most dominant factors are the random time-delays and the data losses.These factors among others have to be addressed for a proper application of the I-bRO. For this reason, different cases and scenarios of the I-bRO have been investigated and simulated to study the affection of the network on the control system performance. The system is analysed under two control cases, closed loop with random time-delays and open loop when the internet server is disconnected and no communication between the input and the output of the system. In the first case, the closed loop, the internet server is assumed to be closed and subjected to random time-delays. In the second case, the internet server is subjected to random cut-off and thus opens the control loop. The results of both cases have been analysed and discussed. It has been found that, if the control system without the time-delays is stable, it remains stable even with small time-delays up to twenty seconds. This result is different from what has been shown in the literature

Remote laboratory to support control theory

The Control Systems plays a vital role in the industry, which is the most essential application of the Electrical Engineering. The control concepts are present in most of the automation systems. The Control Systems theory is the key concept to achieve the automation and makes world faster. But, in reality the study of control engineering is decreased in the recent years, because of the difficulty in learning the concepts of the control theory. Most of the students feel difficult to understand theoretical concepts of control systems. The traditional teaching methodology is one way of teaching control systems concepts. Even though books are proper way of teaching control systems in a systematic way, we need additional tool to create interaction between the subject and the students. The teaching platform is worth to analyse the possibility to add or complement the way of standing with means able to add Real evidences. In another way, it is important that the provided lab experiment should be affordable. The teaching platform to support control theory has been introduced with set of experiments to create Real evidences, and manuals to carry out those experiments, slides to have a guidance and Graphical User Interface (GUI) to have an interaction with the control system is provided

Development in Web-based Laboratory Sessions

The laboratory experiments can help the undergraduate students to gain a better understanding the theoretical problem. This paper proposes an educational tool made up a user-friendly interface controlling experimental boards and instrumentation device with a new approach based on FieldPointTM module and the web publishing tool of the LabVIEW. The proposed system allows students to improve their knowledge in the field of optical sensing devices, virtual instrumentation, data acquisition systems, and signal processing

Using Virtual Instrument in Teaching Automatic Measurement Technology Course

The use of an automatic measurement technology is highly important in current industries. The technology has been sued in various applications such as environment monitoring, quality control of production line, and medical disease analysis. Automatic measurement technology requires programming, facilities integration, control application, function innovation, and maintenance technology. Developing suitable teaching equipment that can satisfy the demand of industry-orientation Automatic Measurement Technology Course (AMTC) is a challenge. In this study, a virtual instrument is introduced to solve the problem. LabVIEW, which is utilized to design virtual instruments, provides powerful functions for instrument control and measurement. Therefore, in this proposed AMTC, anbsp LabVIEW-based virtual instrument system is established as teaching equipment for undergraduate students in colleges of engineering or technology

Low-Field NMR/MRI Systems Using LabVIEW and Advanced Data-Acquisition Techniques

International audienc

Developing a Wireless Sensor Network Programming Language Application Guide Using Memsic Devices and LabVIEW

The principal objective of this project is to develop a wireless sensor network (WSN) programming language application guide for junior and senior undergraduate students in College of Technology, Architecture and Applied Engineering in Bowling Green State University. Memsic device, MoteWorks and LabVIEW software are used to conduct experiments in developing WSN applications after both software and hardware platform are verified to be usable with experimental and statistical analysis. The guide is divided into six chapters including both theoretical knowledge and practical experiments in WSN area. Programs, both in nesC language and LabVIEW are improved from previous work, tested to run successfully and noted in detail