Development of a Modularized Architecture for Remote-Access Laboratories

El-Sayed Aziz; Zengqian Wang; Sven K. Esche; Constantin Chassapis

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Conference: 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Vancouver, BC
Publication Date: June 26, 2011
Start Date: June 26, 2011
End Date: June 29, 2011
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Great Ideas for Projects that Teach Instrumentation
Tagged Division: Instrumentation
Page Count: 16
Page Numbers: 22.475.1 - 22.475.16
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--17756
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/17756
Download Count: 360

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Paper Authors

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El-Sayed Aziz Stevens Institute of Technology

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Dr. El-Sayed Aziz holds a faculty position as assistant professor in the Production Engineering and Mechanical Design Department at Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Egypt. Currently, he is working as research scientist at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Mansoura University, Egypt, in 1991 and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in 2003. His research interests include knowledge-based engineering systems, computer-integrated design and manufacturing, Finite Element Analysis, software development and applications as well as remote and virtual laboratories.

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Zengqian Wang Stevens Institute of Technology

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Sven K. Esche Stevens Institute of Technology

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Sven Esche is a tenured Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology. He received a Diploma in Applied Mechanics in 1989 from Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany, and was awarded M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The Ohio State University in 1994 and 1997, respectively. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses related to mechanisms and machine dynamics, integrated product development, solid mechanics and plasticity theory, structural design and analysis, engineering analysis and finite element methods and has interests in remote laboratories, project-based learning and student learning assessment. His research is in the areas of remote sensing and control with applications to remote experimentation as well as modeling of microstructure changes in metal forming processes. He publishes regularly in peer-reviewed conference proceedings and scientific journals. At the 2006 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition in Chicago, USA, he received the Best Paper Award for his article ‘A Virtual Laboratory on Fluid Mechanics’.

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Constantin Chassapis Stevens Institute of Technology

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Abstract

Development of a Modularized Architecture for Remote-access Laboratories Abstract for a Full PaperConducting hands-on experiments in undergraduate laboratory courses with large studentenrollment imposes significant strains on the fiscal, spatial and personnel resources of theeducational institutions. In response to the need for developing laboratory resources that providea practical experience to large engineering classes, remotely shared experimental facilities haveemerged as one innovative solution for educational laboratories with reduced resource needs.Recent research showed that a significant number of remotely-accessible experiments have beendeployed globally across many of the major engineering disciplines around the world. Severalsoftware architectures and technologies for remote laboratories have been proposed andimplemented over the last years. Organizations usually choose and adopt one solution based ontheir needs, previous experience, available software and software development tools as well ason the skills and expertise of the developers. Each solution has its advantages and disadvantages.In this context, there is an increasing need for a unified method for developing and presentingsuch remote-access laboratory resources in order to allow potential users to easily and efficientlyuse them.The aim of this paper is to develop a modularized and scalable system architecture for remoteexperimentation, which enables the interaction of multiple users with a network of spatiallydistributed experimental devices. Furthermore, the paper will describe an increase in thefunctionality available in the current version of the remote-access laboratory to enable studentsto run a wide range of experiments on this platform. As an example, the implementation andsome experimental results for a remotely accessible a wind tunnel will be presented, includingdetailed descriptions of the techniques employed for linking the different functional modulesimplemented as LabVIEW scripts to a laboratory webpage. The modularized remote laboratorysystem was designed based on a client-server structure. The wind tunnel setup enables thestudents to explore various fluid flow phenomena, such as the external air flow around an airfoiland a golf ball.

Citation
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Aziz, E., & Wang, Z., & Esche, S. K., & Chassapis, C. (2011, June), Development of a Modularized Architecture for Remote-Access Laboratories Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC. 10.18260/1-2--17756

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -     Development of a Modularized Architecture for Remote-access                          Laboratories                               Abstract for a Full PaperConducting hands-on experiments in undergraduate laboratory courses with large studentenrollment imposes significant strains on the fiscal, spatial and personnel resources of theeducational institutions. In response to the need for developing laboratory resources that providea practical experience to large engineering classes, remotely shared experimental facilities haveemerged as one innovative solution for educational laboratories with reduced resource needs.Recent research showed that a significant number of remotely-accessible experiments have beendeployed globally across many of the major engineering disciplines around the world. Severalsoftware architectures and technologies for remote laboratories have been proposed andimplemented over the last years. Organizations usually choose and adopt one solution based ontheir needs, previous experience, available software and software development tools as well ason the skills and expertise of the developers. Each solution has its advantages and disadvantages.In this context, there is an increasing need for a unified method for developing and presentingsuch remote-access laboratory resources in order to allow potential users to easily and efficientlyuse them.The aim of this paper is to develop a modularized and scalable system architecture for remoteexperimentation, which enables the interaction of multiple users with a network of spatiallydistributed experimental devices. Furthermore, the paper will describe an increase in thefunctionality available in the current version of the remote-access laboratory to enable studentsto run a wide range of experiments on this platform. As an example, the implementation andsome experimental results for a remotely accessible a wind tunnel will be presented, includingdetailed descriptions of the techniques employed for linking the different functional modulesimplemented as LabVIEW scripts to a laboratory webpage. The modularized remote laboratorysystem was designed based on a client-server structure. The wind tunnel setup enables thestudents to explore various fluid flow phenomena, such as the external air flow around an airfoiland a golf ball.
AU  - El-Sayed Aziz
AU  - Zengqian Wang
AU  - Sven K. Esche
AU  - Constantin Chassapis
CY  - Vancouver, BC
DA  - 2011/06/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Development of a Modularized Architecture for Remote-Access Laboratories
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/17756
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--17756
ER  -