IEEE REVISTA IBEROAMERICANA DE TECNOLOGIAS DEL APRENDIZAJE, VOL. 10, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2015 319 Remote Experimentation Using a Didactical Elevator Ignacio Angulo Martínez, Javier García-Zubía, Member, IEEE, and Gabriel Martínez-Pieper Abstract— The use of didactic models in industrial engineering provides students with an enhanced experimental environment to design in accordance with industrial requirements. The high cost of industrial models promotes its deployment as a remote experiment. The system presented in this paper allows real experimentation through the Internet over an industrial model that accurately emulates a three-floor elevator. Index Terms— Remote lab, distance education, FPGA experi- mentation, embedded systems education. I. I NTRODUCTION E DUCATIONAL development systems and didactic trainers provide real experimentation with different tech- nologies in the field of microelectronics and embedded systems. However, the didactic and multidisciplinary character of these tools involves a relaxation in the specifications of the requirements of the experiments carried out [1]. The simulation of peripherals through general devices (LEDs, potentiometers, learning motors, buttons and switches) keeps students away from the time constraints required by real installations. In this sense, the use of an industrial model provides identical requirements to those in industry, offering the same challenges as engineers face in their careers. The high cost of industrial models hampers the acquisition and maintenance of this equipment by engineering schools. This situation provides an ideal scenario for the use of remote laboratories that allow students to carry out experiments on this high-cost teaching equipment [2]. Remote laboratory management systems (RLMS) are responsible for managing the access of students to experiments and provide the highest level of immersion in the experiment [3]. II. LABORATORY DESCRIPTION The advances made in remote laboratories in recent years [4] allow students to perform experiments on remotely- located physical equipment over the Internet [5], [6]. This paper presents a remote laboratory developed by the University of Deusto to experiment on programmable logic devices over a model that includes all necessary electromechanical systems for implementing an elevator. Manuscript received July 1, 2015; revised September 1, 2015; accepted September 8, 2015. Date of current version November 4, 2015. The authors are with the Faculty of Engineering, University of Deusto, Bilbao 48007, Spain (e-mail: ignacio.angulo@deusto.es; zubia@deusto.es; gabi.martinez@deusto.es). Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/RITA.2015.2486478 Fig. 1. Elevator model by Staudinger GmbH. This remote laboratory is based on the commercial model developed by Staudinger GmbH (Fig. 1). It is a miniaturized elevator for three floors including all safety equipment and essential functionality: two speeds engine, limit switches, proximity sensors, door opening sensors, emergency systems, pneumatic system for opening the doors, cabin control panel, buttons, LEDs... The control of the integrated systems in the model is performed through Digital 24V inputs (26) and outputs (24) controllable from SUB-DB37 connectors. The digital nature of sensors and actuators included in the model allows the design of the control system using different technologies: microcontrollers, CPLD, FPGA, PLC or industrial control software (LabView, etc.). At this moment the control system is based on a FPGA development board (Spartan-3 Starter Board), commonly used in multiple courses of programmable logic [7]. The remote laboratory allows students to develop the logic of the experiment using a hardware definition language. Students must synthesize the design and program the device using the Remote Lab. Then they can verify its proper 1932-8540 © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.