Virtual Software and Hardware Environment Provides Enhanced Learning for Mechatronics Engineering Technology Majors

摘要

Virtual software tools such as National Instruments' LabVIEW, Rockwell Automation's SoftLogix 5800, Studio 5000, and FactoryTalk View Studio are extensively used for development of electronic products, mechatronics systems, manufacturing automation systems, and especially used in designing packaging machinery system. They have become almost essential to follow concurrently engineering principles to meet desired standards such as: high quality, robustness, low cost, time to market, and customer satisfaction. In order to achieve modular design, serviceability, upgradeability, and disposability, virtual software tools are of utmost importance during development cycle. They play an important role for modeling, simulation, prototyping, including deployment cycle. Introducing these tools to mechatronics engineering technology courses exposes student to today's real world practices and provides enhanced learning environment in laboratory. In addition, introduction of these tools will allow laboratory environment to become less dependent on difficult-to-maintain and expensive laboratory hardware setups. Because of their virtual nature, a reliable computer station and software licensing is all that is necessary to provide the knowledge. The intention of this work is not to eliminate the hardware coupled with hands-on activities, rather to be less dependent on them (the laboratory hardware) to carry the concepts and provide theoretical and practical background to students. The virtual laboratory hardware and software system complements the real laboratory hardware and provides enhanced learning environments for the students. It is much more productive not to lose a 3-hour laboratory session and instead use a virtual hardware in case of non-availability of actual (real) hardware system. This virtual nature of laboratory also allows comparatively large laboratory class sizes as compared with those restricted by actual work stations (number of students in a laboratory class). This is also economically advantageous to ever changing world of improved hardware, hardware with new features, and of course cost of buying them and maintaining them in a university or college laboratory setting. This approach will also allow instructor to provide individualistic laboratory assignment to each student in the class and that in turn helps students enhance their problem solving ability. These types of problem solving ability coupled with proficiency in using industrial grade software and virtual hardware tools will enhance students' preparation for the real world environments. This paper explains the software used for the virtual laboratory, three examples using the software, and finally some results/conclusions related to how the virtual laboratories enhanced student understanding of the concepts.