Remote Laboratory Operation: Web Technology Successes

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has awarded Fort Valley State University (FVSU) a three-year project to develop an undergraduate minor program in computer based measurement and instrumentation. The primary objective of this program is to enhance the existing mathematics, engineering technology, and computer science programs at FVSU. This program will help students gain a solid foundation in computer science, engineering, physics, and modern experimental sciences through hands-on laboratory-based approaches with state-of-the-art technologies. A modern computerized instrumentation lab is currently being developed at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of FVSU to support the curriculum of the minor program. We are planning to equip the lab with various experimental setups that could be used to perform scientific experiments for lab science courses offered at FVSU. These setups will be fully controlled, monitored and operated by computer systems using virtual instrumentation technology. They will also feature on-line capabilities that would allow users to operate them remotely through the Internet. The setups are: (1) a motor-generator with a variable speed motor and a variable resistive load and (2) a variable-speed water pump, flow and level system. This paper discusses the way we use these in classes for teaching programming and data-acquisition. The paper presents typical assignments and a survey of student satisfaction and student complaints. Computer-Based Measurement and Instrumentation We believe that students majoring in computer science and engineering technology need computer experience that goes beyond standard "computer literacy" and programming. Computers are now routinely used for data acquisition and equipment control. With rapid growth in this area, more trained and knowledgeable college graduate are needed. In our laboratory, computers are being used to make physical measurements with sensors that send signals to data-acquisition boards and an instrument-based software (virtual instrument) reads the experimental data. This technology has helped create measurement systems that are dramatically more robust and efficient than traditional ones such as voltmeters, ammeters, thermometers, torque indicators, tachometers, level sight-gauges, rotameters, etc. In addition to taking the readings, the software can collect and record the data, present the data graphically and publish results to the World Wide Web. The following section includes further details of this technology. The computer-based measurements in our systems are made using LabVIEW software and data acquisition boards from National Instruments. All computers are IBM compatible Pentinum PCs. 1,3 Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, Georgia. 2 College of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, Tennessee.