A customizable platform for remotely teaching & learning LVDTs: The relevance of using the IEEE1451.0 Std. to facilitate its design and access

In electrical engineering, sensing natural phenomena requires the use of transducers, such as the sensors named Linear Variable Differential Transformers (LVDTs). They are traditionally interfaced with computer devices through signal conditioning circuits to measure linear displacements with good linearity, sensitivity and precision. Their adoption in many industrial applications requires from engineering schools a particular attention to create the best conditions to teach and learn them, in particular by providing infrastructures to enable students the conduction of experimental activities. To overcome some of the difficulties faced by engineering schools (low budget, curricula time constraints, lack of infrastructures, among others), this paper presents a remotely accessible infrastructure comprising a customizable platform that enables the conduction of real LVDT experiments. Since the infrastructure is currently a prototype solution, some improvements are suggested, in particular the possibility of using some of the issues described in the IEEE1451.0 Std. that was originally published to design and interface smart transducers.