1877-0428 © 2010 Published by Elvier Ltd.doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.594
Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 2 (2010) 3806–3810
Available online at
Virtual instruments are ud nowadays for measurement and control, but also as educational tools for students, being well accepted and stimulating innovation in the process of exploring the real world. It leads to discover interrelations, the phenomena are easier undersold and theory is better assimilated. The tool can be ud in real laboratories as well as in virtual laboratories, constituting a support for lf-learning or distance learning. This article prents how virtual instruments can be us
ed in engineering education, with examples from our Vibration Laboratory, together with a qualitative rearch regarding the perception of students to this issue.
© 2010 Elvier Ltd. All rights rerved.
Keywords: Virtual Instrumentation; engineerinf; education; distance learning; innovation.
1. Introduction
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The fast development of powerful computers, with high processing speed and large available memory, equipped with adequate software has transformed the way in which engineers work. Virtual instruments have a special place in the world of measurements, permitting easy integration and flexible customization. Nowadays, virtual instruments are ud as educational tools for students in various domains. On one side, are utilized to design the measurement system. On the other side, are ud as simulation tools in a clod virtual world in which the ur can obrve the behavior of complex systems in different contexts, being of great help in understanding various phenomena.
This approach is generally well accepted by students, stimulating innovation in the process of designing proper virtual instruments. It leads also to discover interrelations, the phenomena are easi
er undersold and theory is better assimilated. The tool can be ud in real laboratories as well as at home, in virtual laboratories, constituting a support for lf-learning or distance learning.
The prent article aims to illustrate how Virtual Instruments can be ud in engineering education, with examples from the Vibration Laboratory of the Eftimie Murgu University of Resita, together with a quantitative rearch regarding the perception of students to this issue.
* Gilbert-Rainer Gillich. Tel.: +40-744-790-524; fax: +40-255-210-230 E-mail address : gr.
Gilbert-Rainer Gillich et al. / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 2 (2010) 3806–38103807
生日快乐的歌曲2. Learning using virtual instruments
Virtual Instrumentation (VI) can be ud both for designing applications which simulate real-world devices and instruments, as well as for modeling and simulation of the real mechanical process. This last facility reprents an important and significant characteristic of LabVIEW, which can be ud to create powerful tools in the education process. LabVIEW software, registered trademark of National Instrument Inc. (NI), reprents a programming environment that include specific tools nece
ssary for instrument control, data acquiring, storage, analysis, prentation and integrating of tho features in a single system. It us graphical programming and a special graphical language. The main goal of LabVIEW reprents the creation of virtual instruments.
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The characteristics make VI proper for lf-instruction and distance learning. Distance learning is not widely ud yet in engineering education in Romania, becau of the numerous applications and labor works requested for this specialization. However, accepting that all forms of flexible education supported by information and communication technology can be classified as distance learning, in parallel with development of specific software, this type of education will find more and more place in engineering education. 3. Examples of applications
First is prented an example of using of a Virtual Instrument, created with LabVIEW software, ud in learning about superposition of two harmonic vibrations situated in orthogonal plans. The vibrations are usually expresd:
)t f 2cos(a x 11M S (1)
月是故乡)t f 2cos(b y 22M S (2)
Figure 1 illustrates the Front panel window of the Virtual Instrument, which is the interface to the ur. It permits to change the values of amplitudes a and b , frequencies f 1 and f 2 and pha ij1 and ij2 using the buttons on the left side of the panel. A combination of the parameters gives Lissojous figures (known also as Bowditch figures). In this way students can visualize the effects of changing parameters.
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Figure 1. Front panel window of the Virtual instrument ud to demonstrate the Lissajous figures
Figure 2 prents the Block diagram window of the VI, which contains the graphical source code. It is easy to be remarked the simplicity of the diagram, designed using graphical programming, an intuitive programming mode. This makes the programming environment ur-friendly and acceptable even for inexperienced urs.
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Figure 2. Block diagram of the virtual instrument
Another example refers to damage detection using the shift in frequency of harmed beams. This hands-on experiment is realized in four steps:
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- measurement and processing the signal – the eigenfrequency is determined
- harm of the beam by realizing a transversal channel
- new measurement and processing of the signal – the new eigenfrequency is determined
- comparison of the two values of the eigenfrequency.
Figure 3. Front panel window Virtual instrument ud to demonstrate the shift in frequency This information is connected also to other disciplines like Strength of materials, by using Inertia moment and Young modulus as parameters to determinate theoretically the deformation of the undamaged and damaged beam. Realizing a ries of experiments and correlating the values of frequency, damage dept and damage location, a model describing the behavior of the beam can be determined.
Gilbert-Rainer Gillich et al. / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 2 (2010) 3806–38103809 4. Quantitative rearch regarding the perception of students to u of virtual instruments in education
To find out the perception of student regarding the u of virtual instruments, a quantitative rearch was developed, taking as target group the students of mechanical engineering in the 5th mester. From 72 students, 45 have answered, the questions and corresponding answers are given in table 1. As a characteristic of the target group, it has large experience in using the LabVIEW program, consisting of 28 hours of applications in the laboratory.
Table 1. Answers to the Questionnaire
Is it easy to u VIs 2 21 22
You have ud VIs mainly for measurements 29 18 7 1
VIs can substitute minaries and problem solving 35 5 2 3
The VI makes me understand better the phenomena 17 28
The u of VIs makes lf-learning more facile 1 3 24 17 As shown in figure 4, the students appreciate in a very large measure that resources consisting in PCs and programs are available at the university, so that the u of VIs in education didn’t consist an administrative difficulty. They also appreciate, a fact which we consider normal after a big amount of hours spent for applications, that the u of VIs didn’t consist a technical problem. With this two questions we intent to determinate the acceptance of VIs in the education process.
Figure 4. Availability of resources Figure 5. Easy handling
The next two questions are dedicated to express the opinion regarding the mean of using VIs. The answers at the first of them, as shown in figure 6, reflects that they are not exclusively ud for measurements or control of process. So, Vis are ud also for education, but students strongly appreciate that they can not substitute minaries and problem solving, figure 7.
Figure 6. U of VIs Figure 7. Substitution of minaries
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Even so, virtual instruments are a powerful tool to increa performance in the learning process by clarifying complex phenomena in visual mode or by developing experiments, making facile the understanding of the real world. This facts are reflected both in figure 8, were the ufulness in assimilating den information is rearched, as well in figure 9, by demonstrating that VIs are a support for individual teaching.
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艺术课程Figure 8. Support in understanding phenomena Figure 9. Utility in lf-learning
Additional to the remarks, we can say that the u of virtual instruments makes the learning proce
ss more interesting, attract students to engineering studies (which are sometimes hard and exhaustible), stimulating in the same time creativity and innovation.
5. Conclusions
Students can be attracted to engineering studies trough the u of ICT in regular lessons and development of hands-on experiments, which make studies exciting and challenging According to this study, students accept to u virtual instruments for the educational process, being attracted by the flexibility and versatility of the tools which can change the social dynamics of the classrooms.
It can be also mentioned that virtual instruments increa the panel of means for educators, and together with other media like Java applets and supported by theoretical explanations, improving the quality of education. References
Dumitrescu, C., Olteanu, R. L., Gorghiu, L. M., Gorghiu, G. & State, G. (2009). Using virtual experiments in the teaching process. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 1, 776–779.
Gillich, G. R., Amariei, D., Gillich, N. & Amariei, O. I. (2009). Premio – an electronic platform for entrepreneurial training. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 1, 2380-2384.
Olteanu, R. L., Dumitrescu, C., Gorghiu, G. & Gorghiu, L. M. (2009). Related aspects to the impact of virtual instruments implementation in the teaching process. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 1, 780–784.
Takayama, S. & Kariya, K. (2003). Heuristic Learning Tool on Ur Interface of Virtual Instrument. Measurement science review Volume
3 Section 1, 61-64.
Zaimovic-Uzunovic, N., Lemeš, S. & Petkovic, D. (2001). Virtual instruments – a chance to teach engineering at a distance. International Conference on Engineering Education, Oslo, Norway, Session 7D1, 24-26.
