Modular Workbench for In-Situ and Remote Laboratories

摘要

This communication describes a learning platform which is being developed at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) in Barcelona, Spain. The goal was to solve the trade-off between the need for performing real laboratory practices in engineering education and the emergent implantation of distance learning in our curricula. Most of our courses in Electronic Engineering have 50% of the load devoted to laboratory work. The semi-distance EE degree allows the students to carry out at home the theory and problems study but keeps the in-situ laboratories. We developed a previous remote laboratory [1], based on a VXI system, an experiments board and a web-server that is working since 2002 but which cannot serve simultaneous users and which is difficult to expand and maintain. The workbench we popose intends to preserve the experimental work but allowing the students to perform a variable number oflaboratory activities remotely, using the same platform than the in-situ laboratories. This approach preserves not only the feeling ofreality but the knowledge of the experimental set-up features. The subject of the experience is the sensors and signal conditioning laboratory. The solution is based on a modular set of electronic boards. Two kind of base or mother boards allow the connection of several daughterboards which implement the different experiments. One ofthe motherboards is only intended for in-situ experiments but the other includes an Ethernet capable microcontroller and A/D and D/A converters which allow the realisation of both in-situ and remote laboratory activities over the same set-up.