Int. Conf. on Soft Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Pattern Recognition, Biomedical Engineering and Associated Technologies (SAP-BEATS) 2013 58 Abstract — This paper reports a web based Analog Signals, Network and Measurement system (ASNMS) laboratory that can be used in Electrical Engineering education for undergraduate students and researchers. A set of experiments have been introduced that have been developed using LabVIEW and uploaded into web for remote access. Some case studies of the experiments are discussed. The proposed laboratory system can be accessed at http://iitkgp.vlab.co.in/sub=39&brch=124 I. INTRODUCTION HE latest developments in internet technologies have tremendously boosted web based knowledge exchange programs. Apart from the conventional classroom teaching, several educational institutes also share their knowledge database with students via education websites. The students, not only from the institute but also elsewhere, can view and download video lectures and access quality tutorials and assignments prepared by experienced faculty members [1-2]. The success of this approach has made educationists to think a step even further in terms of establishing virtual laboratories where students can perform virtual experiments online. As in an actual course, the laboratory experiments supplements and tests one understanding of theory, creating a virtual laboratory where students can perform experiments. Latest internet based technologies does offer a promise to extensively build web based simulated laboratory environments that bears more advanced features by which practical hands-on experience can be imparted. In literature, different web based practical laboratory has been reported for different domains of engineering studies. M.D. Koretsky [3] has described chemical vapor deposition processes (CVD) laboratory by number of numerical simulation. Simulations have been designed based on basic principles of heat, mass transfer theory and they have incorporated some noise to simulate real feeling of practical experimenting. There is only some discussion of feasibility for the use of simulation based virtual laboratory in the domain of electronics [4]. Modern circuit simulation tools are available to design web based electrical and electronics teaching supplements but it takes enough time Dr. Alok Kanti Deb is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, (e-mail: alokkanti@ee.iitkgp.ernet.in) Tanmoy Dam is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, (e-mail: damtanmoy10@gmail.com). to master it, eg. SpiceOpus and Maple software with special versions of PraCAn. PHP has been used for scripting language [5]. Dynamic programming language, such as JAVA has been introduced to design a software package of Virtual Circuit Laboratory [6]. Small voltage real time electronic circuit simulation has been developed by H. A. Basher [7]. The real time power electronics experiments have been developed in Department of Electrical Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University by Data Acquisition Board (DAQ) and LabVIEW [8]. They have designed two experiments: DC/DC converters and the Quasi-resonant zero current switching converters by GPIB [8] (General purpose Interface Bus), DAQ and LabVIEW [8-10]. In this paper a virtual laboratory on an Analog Signal, Network and Measurement System (ASNMS) has been introduced that has the following features: i. It reduces the cost of practical laboratory. Once, virtual laboratory has been developed, hereafter no substantial maintenance cost are required to continue the laboratories as experiments would be available to undergraduate students at no cost. ii. Whereas a finite number of students can attend a practical laboratory class at a time, this web based interactive laboratory can be handled by a large number of students directly through internet. iii. Advanced computing tools have been incorporated in learning procedure. iv. The shortage of qualified faculty can be compensated by this proposed system. v. Students can access AC single phase power supply, DC power supply, transformer, resistance, capacitance and inductance boxes, millivoltmeter, rheostat, etc. vi. All post experiments calculation results are displayed through table, graph etc. The paper is organized as follows: Section II describe simulation tools used in electrical engineering and their role in virtual education. Section III, contains architecture of the overall project. Assessing the virtual laboratory project is described in section IV. Section V illustrates some implementations of the experiments. Section VI contains concluding remarks. A Web based Analog Signals, Network and Measurement Laboratory Alok Kanti Deb, Tanmoy Dam T