Computer Assisted E-Laboratory using LabVIEW and Internet-of-Things Platform as Teaching Aids in the Industrial Instrumentation Course

Abstract

Nowadays, the emerging trend of utilizing the internet technology to improve teaching methods has caught the attention of many researchers. The education sector is the particular sector which has been getting the influence to implement more advanced teaching methods, and this can be seen through the application of the monitoring system, remote control, and even data acquisition through the Internet. Therefore, this study demonstrates the development of the interactive system via the Internet for the remote access to the equipment known as LD-Didactic temperature system which is used in the laboratory. This particular system is developed using an Arduino-Espresso8266 and LabVIEW platform which is integrated with Blynk software in order to remotely control the Proportional, Integral, and Derivative (PID) setting. Furthermore, the proposed framework is specifically focused on the PID temperature control system, which allows students to learn and simulate the concept of the control scheme by adjusting suitable parameter gains. Moreover, the system evaluation demonstrates the functionality and ability of direct controlling, monitoring, and tracking in order to achieve the targeted temperature control. These three strategies ensure the reproducibility of the experiment for the implementation in different systems. Last but not least, the designed system illustrates that full integration of the system with the internet platform provides students with the underlying knowledge of fundamentals, graphic visualization, and simulation practices. These will subsequently facilitate the learning process of the students.