An online virtual laboratory model based on the Internet of Things for use in the field of renewable energy

Abstract

The field of engineering has always relied on experimentation as a pillar to deepen students' knowledge. During the period of the Corona pandemic, the importance of remote laboratories emerged as universities closed their doors due to this pandemic. From here came the idea of the research, which is the design and implementation of a prototype remote laboratory suitable for conducting practical experiments based on Internet of Things (IoT) technique. The proposed remote laboratory is based on a client-server model; where the server side represents the laboratory side, and the client side represents users, which are divided into three user types: administrators, lecturers, and students. The proposed experiments are based on the Effects of various environmental parameters on PV-module power and efficiency. Students can access it in a secure way through an interface that is provided as a web page, and all that users need to perform the experiment is a web browser, internet connection, username and password. The low-cost Hardware part involves the Microcontroller, the solar cell, and the sensors that are required for data acquisition from the overall experiment environment, in addition to actuators to control the environmental parameters.  The hardware part is designed to be controlled by software, which has been created in several programming languages (Python, HTML, JavaScript, MySQL, and LabVIEW). Finally, a Web camera was connected to the server to provide a live video stream to monitor the device's status to give the student the feeling that he is close to the real laboratory. Finally, the proposed system supported with automatic assessment mechanism to evaluate the student's performance during the conduction of the experiment and thus to reduce the effort of the supervisor of the laboratory.