Session R3E San Juan, PR July 23 – 28, 2006 9 th International Conference on Engineering Education R3E-13 A Remote Experimental Setup for performing Experiments on Temperature Sensors Ashish Mani 1 and C. Patvardhan 2 1 Lecturer, USIC, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Dayalbagh, Agra-5, India, ashish.mani@rediffmail.com 2 Reader, Dept. of Electrical Engg., Faculty of Engineering., Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Dayalbagh, Agra-5, India, cpatvardhan@hotmail.com Abstract - Remote laboratories are gaining considerable attention and acceptance in the academic world. Most of the work reported on implementation of Remote labs has been related to labs on control systems and to a certain extent to labs on Electronics Engineering. Therefore, in this paper we have described the design and implementation of a remote experimental setup for performing experiments on Sensors, specifically Temperature Sensors, from a remote location. The traditional experimental setup was interfaced with a Personal Computer, which acts as the Lab server, using data acquisition card (DAQ Card) and software programs written in LabVIEW. The PC was connected to the LAN / Internet and the experiment was published on the network using the LabVIEW Web publishing and Internet Tool box and G and Web Servers. Thus the experiment has been made accessible to anyone, over a TCP/IP network, with a standard Web Browser, relevant plug-in and permission. The aim was to control and change the temperature of the bath in which the temperature sensors were inserted for their characterization, and further collect data from the resulting change in the temperature sensor’s output. In Temperature Sensors characterization experiments, the temperature was varied over their working range on an aluminum plate and the output voltages of the Temperature Sensors (including the signal conditioner) were recorded for each variation in temperature. The remote client could control the bath’s temperature and monitor the temperature of the bath and transducers’ output in real time. This work demonstrates that traditional experiments, especially in the field of sensors and transducers can be successfully made available online. They can provide both on-campus and off-campus students with flexibility to do the experiments at their own schedule and convenience. Index Terms – Remote Laboratories, Temperature Sensors, LabVIEW, Servers. 1. INTRODUCTION The rapid advancement in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), availability of quality infrastructure and cheap services have led to exponential expansion of applications of ICT in almost all the fields of endeavor. ICT have brought about a significant change in the life style of individuals by providing easy connectivity and access to information. The world of education has also been greatly affected by advancements in ICT. It has enabled a variety of new avenues and methodologies for enhancing the experience of learning and teaching in both the types of programs for imparting education viz. Traditional Classroom & Distance Education (DE) Program. Therefore, ICT have the potential to make the higher and specialized education affordable for larger pool of students. It is well known that relevant laboratory experience can significantly improve the students’ learning and interest level in the course material in the traditional as well as DE programs. This is particularly true for courses like Science and Engineering. The students of Science and Engineering need laboratories for measurement, data collection, analysis and experience of handling equipment and other physical devices [1]. The laboratory experience is essential for developing better understanding, problem solving skills and skills of minute observation in students. However, the effective integration of relevant experiments into courses remains the most challenging aspect of any program due to constraints of time and space and limited resources available for the provision of laboratory infrastructure. A cost effective and technologically feasible solution to this problem is to use Information and Communication Technologies for providing Laboratory experience. Remote labs are equipped with real instruments where experiments can be performed by controlling the instruments and observing the real data from a distant location through the network. They simplify the logistics and requirements involved in conventional lab work, including scheduling of equipment, lab space, staffing, training and safety. Students can conduct the experiment from any computer on the network at their own schedule. It can provide for efficient sharing of expensive laboratory resources [2]. Many universities have developed Internet-based remote laboratories [2-17]. Most of the efforts on implementation of Remote labs have been related to the experiments on study of control systems [2-10] and to a certain extent to the experiments on study of Electronics Engineering [11-17].