Development of an educationally oriented open-source embedded systems laboratory kit: A hybrid hands-on and virtual experimentation approach

Abstract

Embedded microcontroller (MCU) systems is one of the most important topics in undergraduate electrical and electronics engineering and computer engineering curricula. Laboratory sessions are vitally important in teaching/learning of MCUs. Unfortunately, most commercially available MCU development kits are not well designed for educational purposes. In this paper, we report on the design and implementation of an educationally oriented MCU kit. The design aimed to produce a fairly universal training board that can cover a range of experiments for different topics, which resulted in embedding a rich group of peripherals. Furthermore, the kit was associated with student-centric lab manuals, training exercise, video materials, and virtual MCU experiments. This paper presents a pedagogical investigation of the impact of using the embedded systems virtual labs for preparation. The quantitative results show statistical evidence that preparation with a virtual embedded systems lab results in higher learning outcomes.

Advanced microwave equipment simulator for engineering education

“…At the same time, virtual laboratories can be used as an addition to or replacement of real laboratory works, which is confirmed by a number of publications. Virtual laboratory works are used for studying robotics, 4 biochemical engineering, thermodynamics, and multiprocessor systems. 8…”

“…This type of education has certain advantages, but its implementation requires both the creation of laboratory workshops executed remotely and also the specialized software. Interactive laboratories are widely used at the universities of many countries, [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] and various international scientific projects are devoted to their design. 5 The application of remote laboratories in the educational process made it possible to solve problems inherent in laboratory installations, and by means of virtual laboratories the problem of an almost simultaneous access to the "experimental" equipment for many students can be solved.…”

Project-based learning applied to an embedded systems course

“…Common to all such methods is the integration of different courses in the development of the projects, which already occurs naturally in the area of ES. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] The aim of the present work is to present a PRBL proposal applied to courses that involve the area of ES. The proposed method is based on problems related to the area of automation, in which the students are required to develop proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control algorithms in embedded systems for the closed-loop control of different types of dynamic plant.…”

“…Common to all such methods is the integration of different courses in the development of the projects, which already occurs naturally in the area of ES. 10–18…”

Project-Based Learning Laboratory for Teaching Embedded Systems

“…A feature in common is the integration of one or more courses of the academic programme during the development of the project [1][2][3][4]10]. The studies presented in [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] describe various methodologies for the application of PRBL in the teaching of ES. The results of opinion surveys conducted in these works demonstrated greater motivation of the students as well as qualitative improvements in learning.…”