Interactive Remote Laboratory Platform for Practical Experimentation

The CVTC (Center for Valorization and Transfer of Competences) laboratory, of the Transylvania University of Brasov, developed a remote laboratory system described in this study along with its step-by-step procedure, capabilities, and limits. This is a remote laboratory based on MyRIO devices and System Link platforms and it allows students to access and control laboratory equipment remotely, through the internet. The MyRIO is a reconfigurable device developed by National Instruments that combines a real-time processor and an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) to provide data acquisition and control capabilities. By using a MyRIO-based remote laboratory, students can perform experiments and collect data without needing to be physically present in a laboratory, which can be especially useful for remote learning or for providing access to equipment that may be difficult or expensive to access otherwise. The online platform is analogous to an IoT ecosystem and has multiple myRIO student-embedded devices as hardware nodes linked to the SystemLink local server and SystemLink cloud platform. The online remote laboratory platform contains multiple experiments in a single myRIO device, and a method for reconfiguring the device from a cloud platform to select specific experiments was developed. An innovative method was devised to transfer data between the hardware nodes and the cloud platform. Using a two-stage mechanism, data was transferred from the myRIO device to the computer using global variables and from the computer to the cloud using System Link tags. The two-stage connection was utilized to save memory and utilize it to run experiments. WebVI-based interfaces were designed using the G Web development tool, and the System Link server and cloud were used to host them. The platform is also being utilized for solar monitoring in partnership with industry.