A federation of VISIR remote laboratories through the PILAR Project
This paper describes how a new Erasmus Plus project, PILAR, (Platform Integration of Laboratories based on the Architecture of visiR), is being developed and how the startup of the partnership and the project is reinforcing the VISIR (Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality) network and the Special Interest Group of VISIR under the Global Online Laboratory Consortium (GOLC) of the International Association of Online Engineering (IAOE). The Spanish University for Distance Education (UNED) coordinates the project that aims to federate the existing (or new) VISIR systems in order to use the resources more effectively and in a more efficient way, making transparent to the final user the election of the shared resources.
PILAR: Sharing VISIR Remote Labs Through a Federation
Social demands have promoted an educational approach based on an “anywhere and anytime” premise. Remote laboratories have emerged as the answer to the demands of technical educational areas for adapting themselves to this scenario. The result has not only benefit distance learning students but has provided new learning scenarios both for teachers and students as well as allowing a flexible approach to experimental topics. However, as any other solution for providing practical scenarios (hands-on labs, virtual labs or simulators), remote labs face several constraints inherited from the subsystems of its deployment —hardware (real instruments, equipment and scenario) and software (analog/digital conversions, communications, workbenches, etc.)—. This paper describes the Erasmus+ project Platform Integration of Laboratories based on the Architecture of visiR (PILAR) which deals with several units of the federation installed in different educational institutions and devoted to analog electronics and electrical circuits. Based on the limitations of remote labs, the need for the federation will be justified and its benefits will be described.
Simulation and control of hybrid renewable energy system connected to the grid
This paper presents a control and simulation of hybrid renewable energy system connected to the grid. The studied system includes a photovoltaic panel, synchronous permanent magnet generator based wind turbine, and a battery for storage energy. The PV array and wind systems are connected to the common DC bus by a boost converter. The battery is connected by a bi-directional DC/DC converter, and then integrated into the AC utility grid via a common DC/AC inverter. In order to extract the maximum energy, a simulation study has been carried out according to the meteorological conditions (wind speed and variable solar irradiance) while maintaining power quality at a satisfactory level. In order to capture the maximum power, a MPPT algorithm is applied for both wind turbine and photovoltaic panel. The modeling and simulation of the whole system has been performed under Matlab/Simulink environment. The obtained results show that the current and the voltage of grid side are sinusoidal and alternative forms, and the power injected to the grid is around the power produced by the hybrid system.