Laboratory Activity during COVID- 19 as a “Virtual Experience”: Restriction or Chance?

Abstract

COVID-19's widespread has infected about 3 million world population, and the countries have enforced a complete lock down that has created a severe economic and health crisis. In presence of this pandemic, the educational activity, tutorial courses and laboratory saw a drastic change. In this context, important modifications have been imposed mainly related to the structure, the way of operating, and the operational phase which involve students and teachers. Even more difficult is the implementation of laboratory and experimental activities through remote labs. In this paper we address this latter point, a possible implementation of a remote laboratory through the adoption of a software platform to connect students to the real lab will be presented. The use and the interconnection of TeamViewer software, LabVIEW, MATLAB and Arduino, will allow the students, at home, to carry out remote routines, program for conditioning circuit and see remotely the effect of the "virtual" lab implemented at distance. The hardware part is installed in the "real" research laboratory at the university and they can remotely perform measurements, characterizations and test validating the theory through experiments. This approach can be implemented with various experiments, here we will show a study of a DC motor with an analysis of vibrations and transient by using MATLAB for dynamic simulations. LabVIEW for the characterization, Arduino for the acquisition/ driving, and TeamViewer software has been used to virtually connect the students to the real lab.

TeamViewer Technology's Effectiveness as an Alternative Tool to Facilitate Online Laboratory Practices for Chemical Engineering Courses Learned during Pandemic

“…The lab computer is now easily accessible to students at home, who may use TeamViewer software to remotely control the computer and use the webcam to see the hardware setup. (Kurukunda et al, 2020).…”

“…For measurement structures to perform consistently, accuracy and precision are essential, and students must learn about various systems through experimental research. It is impossible to dismiss this research or forbid students from participating in experimental activities owing to illness (Kurukunda et al, 2020).…”

Reconfigurable Wireless Sensor Node Remote Laboratory Platform with Cloud Connectivity

“…In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, important changes have been imposed, which are mainly related to the structure, the mode of operation, and the operational phase that involve instructors and students [ 10 ]. The authors of this study believe that the most difficult part was the implementation of experimental activities through remote labs.…”

“…Through this platform, the students can remotely perform tests and measurements, therefore validating the theory through experiments. They presented an experiment of analyzing the vibrations of a DC motor, using LabVIEW for the characterization, Arduino for data acquisition, and MATLAB [ 10 ].…”

Herramientas Para La Experimentación Remota-Virtual-Local De Sistemas De Control en Tiempos De Pandemia

“…Los recursos de acceso remoto, tanto virtuales como físicos, denominados como recursos reales y simulados de acceso remoto de acuerdo a (Bencomo, 2002), son hoy foco de desarrollo e investigación debido a la inaccesibilidad de los laboratorios en las universidades por causa de la pandemia. Recursos reales de acceso remoto como el presentado en (Kurukunda, et al, 2020) proponen el uso de la herramienta TeamViewer (TeamViewer, 2021) para que los estudiantes puedan conectarse de manera remota a equipos de cómputo ubicados en las universidades, estos conectados a montajes simples de un motor de corriente continua, y hacer uso de los programas Matlab (The MathWorks, 2021) y LabView (National Instruments, 2021) para el modelado y validación de un sistema de control de velocidad. En (Chtourou, et al, 2020) los autores proporcionan a los estudiantes un ambiente conformado por un computador y una tarjeta electrónica conectada a un motor para que ellos puedan realizar control remoto, usando la herramienta AnyDesk, y programar la tarjeta electrónica para el desarrollo de prácticas de sistemas embebidos.…”