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The Intelligent Universal Virtual Laboratory (UVL) Session T4G
0-7803-9077-6/05/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE
October 19 22, 2005, Indianapolis, IN
35
th
ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference
T4G-1
The Intelligent Universal Virtual
Laboratory (UVL)

Michael Duarte
Sr. Software Engineer, Temple University, Intelligent Systems Application Center, Electrical & Computer Eng. Department
Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA

Annapoorna Mahalingam
1
, and

Brian P. Butz
2


1

Abstract - The objective of this project was to create a
realistic, real-time, electrical engineering virtual
laboratory. This project targets individuals who do not
have adequate mobility of their upper bodies to perform
laboratory experiments. To provide a more realistic and
enhanced learning experience, the users of the virtual
laboratory are allowed the freedom to build and test a
wide variety of realistic electrical circuits, and be able to
perform curriculum-based experiments. The main goal is
to create an environment similar to a real electrical
engineering laboratory, and to offer the user a way to
learn the different aspects of instrumentation and
circuitry.

Index Terms - Circuit Comparer, Intelligent Tutor, Interactive
Software, Virtual Laboratory

I
NTRODUCTION


According to the Center for Disease Control [1], there are 13.6
million individuals who have limited hand use and another
16.3 million who have mobility limitations. In the field of
science and engineering, there are approximately 109,700
persons with motor disabilities employed in the United States
[2]. Also, approximately 31,300 students with motor
disabilities were registered in science and engineering
programs in 1995 [3]. This project is intended to encourage
and assist individuals with such mobility disabilities to enter
the field of electrical and computer engineering. Presently,
disabled individuals with motor disabilities have a difficult
time with the laboratory portion of the curriculum. At most,
individuals with limited or no use of their arms and hands
could only watch their lab partners perform the laboratory
experiments. While better than nothing, this is not good
enough for a quality laboratory experience.
The purpose of the Universal Virtual Laboratory (UVL) is
to provide a disabled student with motor disabilities a realistic
laboratory experience that can be done at the students pace
while providing a good, solid, curriculum-based background

1
Annapoorna Mahalingam, Temple University, Intelligent Systems
Application Center, Electrical & Computer Eng. Department
2
Brian P. Butz, Professor, Temple University, Electrical & Computer Eng.
Department


in circuit experimentation, as well as a virtual lab assistant to
guide and assist the student.
Recent advancements in computer technology and
availability have allowed the computer industry to develop
hardware and software applications that address the needs of
the physically disabled. Circuit simulation software has
existed for some time, with the very first simulators being
DOS text based programs such as PSpice. With the
introduction of operating systems with graphical user
interfaces (GUI), better laboratory simulation software
became available, such as Electronics Workbench. However,
these programs contain an interface that is difficult for the
physically disabled to use, such as small buttons and an
unfriendly breadboard. In addition, because the instruments
and components do not look realistic, it can feel like a
simulation, instead of a laboratory.

I
MPLEMENTATION


This section describes the factors considered in the
development of the UVL. The User Interface section
describes the user interface and why it is designed the way it
is. A detailed explanation of the various programs used to
develop the UVL is discussed in section II, The Design
Process. Section III, the System Architecture, gives an overall
view of the components that result in the present UVL. The
mechanism facilitating communication among the UVLs
application programs is described in section IV. Finally,
sections V and VI give an overview of the intelligent
laboratory assistant.

I.
I. User Interface

The main goal in the design of the user-interface is to present
the user with a realistic environment as well as an
environment that a disabled user can manipulate without
difficulty. To do this, the laboratory was designed to allow
many different types of assistive technology to work with the
environment. Assistive technology allows disabled
individuals the ability to manipulate a computer. Some of the
devices that were focused on are: switches, large keyboards,
and voice recognition. The UVL has also been developed to
accept traditional mouse and keyboard manipulation. To
make the user interface friendly to the above mentioned Session T4G
0-7803-9077-6/05/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE
October 19 22, 2005, Indianapolis, IN
35
th
ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference
T4G-2
devices, a particular scheme of design was followed so that
simple commands would perform major laboratory functions.
The user-interface consists of a breadboard with miniature
instruments, with a variety of electrical components (see Fig.
1). The components available are: resistors, capacitors,
inductors, diodes, zener diodes, potentiometers, variable
capacitors, transistors, and jumper wires. At the workstation,
the user has the freedom to build any type of circuit
configuration possible. Typically, the student is given an
experiment to complete, which includes circuit schematics to
build and test circuit theory. The instruments available to the
user are two DC power-supplies, a function generator,
oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, and a digital multimeter.



FIGURE 1
USER WORKSPACE / INTERFACE

The instruments are connected to the holes on the
breadboard when the user selects the instrument of his/her
choice and enters the coordinate of the hole the user wishes to
place a cable. The components connect to the breadboard in a
similar way. The coordinates are the letters and numbers seen
on the breadboard (see Fig. 2). The user enters the letter and
number corresponding to the hole on the breadboard where
he/she wishes to place a wire, cable or component. An
example of the interaction with the voice recongnition device,
might be: Move mouse right, Click, C, 2, 2000. This
would move the cursor to the right, over a particular
component, and place it on coordinate C 2 with a value of
2000 ohms for a resistor.
This design scheme, to connect instruments and
components to the breadboard, was determined to be the most
effective way a disabled person with an assistive technology
device could easily control the interface. For a traditional
mouse and keyboard setup, the interface allows a user to
simply drag a component or wire onto a particular node on the
breadboard.



FIGURE 2
COORDINATE VIEW OF THE USER WORKSPACE

Each instrument in the workstation has a corresponding
larger version that is used to change the parameters of that
instrument. With the two input instruments (DC power-
supply and function generator), the user can change the
settings and control the type of signal being put through the
circuit. The output instruments (multimeter and oscilloscope)
can be used to measure the voltage and current of particular
parts of the circuit. The user can manipulate the settings on
these instruments to view the signal similar to actual
instruments. Fig. 3 shows the larger version of the function
generator and the oscilloscope respectively.
The specific instruments that were modeled are fully
adjustable to a range of values found on the equipment in an
ordinary electrical engineering laboratory. As can be seen
from Fig. 3, the buttons, knobs and displays have a large area.
This was done so that the disabled user could more adequately
manipulate the instruments. If the user is inclined to use the
cursor with the voice recognition software, he or she can more
readily navigate the cursor over the large buttons and displays.



FIGURE 3
FUNCTION GENERATOR AND OSCILLOSCOPE

II. The Design Process

In the process of designing the UVL, the major issue
encountered was: what software applications can be used that
will make the system run and perform like a real laboratory.
The laboratory had to give the user a way to produce a virtual
layout of a circuit configuration. Once this layout was
completed, it had to be analyzed to extract certain information
about the circuit. Finally, this information had to be displayed
on instruments that looked and functioned like real
instruments found in a real laboratory.
Macromedias Authorware was chosen to give the user a
way to l