On-line Active filter experiment combining theory, simulation and measurement

Theory, simulation and experimental verification are key issues for successful research and develop­ment. Therefore basic experiments are available at each university to train students. For specialization, however, only few experiments will be available, limiting the choice for the students. Also, life-long learning becomes more and more important for engineers to keep up to date. Modern communication and control technology opens a way to cope with these problems: On-line experiments featuring learning material and control of the experiment by means of usual internet browsers and including simulation. Three main aspects require special attention: The verification of the learning outcome concerning theory and simulation, the “real-life”-feeling of the experiment itself and a simple-to-use method to integrate results from simulation and experiment into a written report. This paper describes an on-line experiment realized within a project (www.pemcweblab.com) funded by the European Community. It includes automatic verification of the learning outcome concerning theory and simulation, allows simple control of the experimental set-up and returns results as readily formatted bitmap images. Under this guidance and control, students and engineers effectively perform simulation and experiment largely on their own and create a report describing the results obtained.