Dynamically Configurable Remote Laboratory for Electrical Engineering Education

A remote laboratory for electrical engineering with a high variety of circuits and realistic operation of instruments is presented in this paper. Using only 20 passive elements and eight laboratory instruments the user can build more than 2,000 different circuits and conduct realistic measurements. A single application based on the .NET framework with a graphical user interface designed via Windows Presentation Foundation is responsible for the communication with the hardware as well as interactions with the user. The user is taught how to operate the instruments, including device-specific menu navigation, in a realistic manner. The software also prevents the operator from causing damage to the equipment by overvoltages or high currents. This is ensured by empirically determined operational boundaries as well as parallel electronic simulations of the built circuits to identify critical and damaging errors. Tests with small user groups in a period of approximately one semester have shown that the remote laboratories can be operated safely without serious errors in software and hardware. The all-in-one software for all laboratory processes as well as low latency are beneficial to the user experience. On this account a broader use for hybrid lessons in basic electrical engineering is planned in the future.