Controlling Programs for Remote Experiments by

Controlling Programs for Remote Experiments by Easy Remote ISES (ER-ISES) F. Schauer1,2, M.Krbecek1 and M.Ozvoldova 1,2 1

University in Zlin, Faculty of Applied Informatics, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Czech Republic 2 University of Trnava, Faculty of Education, Department of Physics, Trnava, Slovak Republic

Abstract – Paper presents the contribution to the building of remote e-laboratories based on physical software ISES (Internet School Experimental System). The control system is an invariable finite-state machine (FSM) for which the control file and corresponding web page are built automatically for the particular experiment by plug and play approach using the screen questionnaire similar to the expert systems by a new environment - EASY REMOTE ISES. The system is aimed at the wide shift of interested in the remote experimentation especially at schools and universities to help disseminate e laboratories among the wider population. Index Terms-remote laboratories, plug and play software compiling, finite-state machine

I. INTRODUCTION AND STATE OF THE ART In experimental laboratories a silent revolution has taken place due to the massive invasion of personal computers and information communication technologies [1]. Experimental working places for the teaching purposes provide real experiments using nowadays omnipotent computer for data collection, processing and evaluation. Even greater changes will bring fast developing area of the physics and natural sciences experimentation in teaching represented by remote e-laboratories with RE. Many real remote elaboratories across the Internet have been published that provide experiments on real world objects, supplying the client with the view of the experiment, interactive environment for the experiment control and resulting data for evaluation. Obviously, there are obstacles to much faster spreading of e-laboratories, one is the low level of dissemination of knowledge about elaboratories [2] the other are of technical complexity and the absence of standardization in building e-laboratories. In any case the young generation is keen in ICT and so new teaching strategies, using and based on ICT, including RE, will be a welcome contribution to the new style of teaching, based on real world phenomena examination by RE [3]. All these trends are reflected in the last ICT call EU FP7 work programme for 2012 in the call ICT-2011.8.1 ”Technology-enhanced learning Supporting Europeanwide federation and use of remote laboratories and virtual experimentations for

learning and teaching purposes”, which obviously intends to bring up the youngest generation to use ICT in education in general and e-laboratories in particular. Especially stringent is the demand for self made approach towards building of RE, both by teachers and pupils even at elementary and secondary school level [4]. This paper comes halfway in this direction, preparing simple solutions for compiling controlling programs for remote experiments (RE). The gist of the call reasoning for the plug and play systems is obvious. It is governed by the leading idea of disseminating the e-laboratories among the wider population, not keeping them for the small group of “devoted”. On the other hand, to some researchers, working in the field of PC oriented experimentation and remote RE, the connection of remote experiments and plug and play interfaces may seem as a mere construction without sense. The RE is by now a rigid system, which uses fixed physics hardware and has to create the controlling program for the informatics hardware (hw) and software (sw), based on the flow chart diagram, enabling only the programmed development of the experiment and instantaneous controls settings of the RE. To bridge the gap and to contribute to the development in remote experimentation, we try to show the possibility of plug and play, specifically in compiling the controlling programs and show the results achieved in designing the environment for plug and play compiling of controlling programs for remote ISES experiments - EASY REMOTEISES (ER-ISES). I. ISES - PLUG AND PLAY REMOTE EXPERIMENT A. Internet school experimental system (ISES) Internet School Experimental System (ISES) [5] is a software and hardware building set for plug and play school experimentation with the general scheme depicted in Fig. 1a. The ISES system was described in detail elsewhere [6] and here we give only few relevant details. It is a complex tool for real time data acquisition, processing, displaying and control of experiments. ISES is an open system consisting of the ISES physical hw and informatics hw. The physical hw is composed of the ISES panel and the set of modules (Fig. 2a) and sensing ISES elements easily interchangeable, their presence and

adjusted range are automatically a sensed by the t computerr, with the auutomatic caliibration faciliity. The ISE ES panel (Figg. 2b) enablees 10 differeent channels (6 analogue and 2 binary) and capabillity T informattics to use 2 programmabble outputs. The w hardwaree is composedd of the inteerface card with A/DD/A converters annd the inform matics sw is the t SESWIN). controllinng program (IS a)

O Observed pheenomenon

Obbserved phenomenon

Physical plug&play hardware

Physsical plug&&play hardwware

Informatics plug&play hardware Informatics plug&play software

Informaatics plug&pplay hardwaare Informatics RE plug&&play software

INTERNET

b) F Figure 1. Plug andd play hardware and a software schem matical representattion ISES: hands on experiment a)), remote experiment b)

Figuure 2. Plug and pllay physical hw of o Internet school experimenntal system: the ADDA A card and set of ISES modulles a), the ISES panell with two ISES modules m b)

i experimentaation Pllug and play in Plug and Play P approachh in informaticcs is used to o describe deevices that w work with a computer sy ystem as soon as they are coonnected. Thee user does no ot have to maanually installl drivers for the t device orr even tell thhe computer tthat a new device d has beeen added. Innstead the ccomputer auto omatically reecognizes the device, loadds new driverrs for the haardware if neeeded, and beegins to work k with the neewly connecteed device.” (h http://en.wikippedia.org/wikii/Plug_and_play, read 15 5.10.2012).Thhis definition oof plug and play comes fro om PC and was enforcedd by the fact that the prrocess of conffiguring devicces, forming the PC or peeripheries maanually could be quite diffficult, and th here was usuually no forggiveness for technical in nexperience. Incorrect I setttings could render r the whole system or just thhe expansion n devices co ompletely or partially p inopeerable. Plug and a play in ISSES remote experiment e B.. prrogramme com mpiling Today, therre are to ourr knowledge only two sy ystems for schhools with the sw support fo or creating RE E - LabVIEW and ISES S. Let us diiscuss the po ossibility of creating c RE bby ISES in mo ore detail. We W started to elaborate thiss approach in n 2011[7]. Once we had the hands oon experimen nt, it was y changing neecessary to traansform it intto the RE by th he controlling sw, as depicted in Fig. 1b,, using the IS SES WEB CO ONTROL kit [8]. This is thee software, which installs all the neceessary compo onents for bu uilding of a finite-state m machine (FSM M) [9].The fin nite-state maachine needs for the speecific RE fu unctioning conntrolling file, so called .pssc file and co orresponding web page onn client sidee. FSM is deepicted in Fig. 3 with .psc ffile and contro olling web paage (see arrow ws). The purpoose of the present paper is to introduce a new environnment for the compiling he controllinng .psc filee and corresponding th co ontrolling webb page by plug and play for easy use off any interesteed thus mediatting the comp plexities of crreation and usability of ISE ES remote experiments EA ASY REMOT TE – ISES (ER R-ISES).

Figure 3. Bloock diagram of thhe finite-state macchine (FSM);, two prrincipal blocks, .ppsc control file an nd web paage modules are hhighlighted.

III. EASY REMOTE ISES Design of the RE based on the ISES was in the past a relatively complex matter. Though the hw system itself was perfectly ready for this option due to its plug and play features. A problem arose in compiling of control logic of the remote experiment itself based on its flow chart logical sequence (e.g. for reaching the desired temperature) that performs the specified action (relay turn on/off the heat). This controlling logic has to secure the interactions between a remote user (client) and the controlling of the experiment at the server side (when the client presses the virtual switch on his/her screen, then the same action must follow, as if it were the actual power supply button of the device). Until recently all these functions have been addressed by the control file (so called .psc file), containing instructions and logic, which replaced the "thinking" of the remote experiment and enabled its remote control. Compiling of this directly executable file was made using a pseudo programming language, whose complexity was far beyond the ability of the layman in the field. This was a huge obstacle for the spreading of self made remote experiments at all levels of their complexity. Next, we describe the ER-ISES more in detail.

Starting level The easiest way of ISES RE building is using the library of simple and common experiments the user can choose, automatically install and start. The library is accessible by the button "Library of Experiments", located on the main application panel (Fig. 4). In the upper left part of the window there is a list of experiments from which we can choose. When the experiment from list is chosen, the experiment library window of ER- ISES occurs (Fig 5). The upper part of window contains a description of the selected experiment and the list of hardware modules required. At the bottom of window there is a preview of the website layout (brown colour). If you point the mouse to the edge of the screen the arrows for showing a next slide appears with the photo of devices and modules connection. The last part of the library window is a text with description of experiment. If we selected the desired experiment, it is necessary only to press the "Finish" button to complete the whole procedure. The program generates the necessary components of the experiment (.psc file and web page code) and then returns to the start menu. At this point, the experiment is already operational, and we can start to use it.

A. Easy Remote ISES RE ISES is a graphical development environment which generates the control .psc file and web page code. When we start the development environment, the welcome menu with a pictures of possible used ISES equipment appears (Fig. 4). Welcome screen also allows to change the language, open the saved project, or enter the library of RE. Let's focused on description of the main parts of the program in three RE difficulty levels.

Figure 5. Experiment library window of ER ISES for basic level of RE of compiling

Figure 4. Welcome panel of EASY REMOTE-ISES environment

For practical reasons the remote experiments are divided into three categories according their complexity- starting level, basic level and advanced level.

Basic level The screen for the basic level of RE starts as the welcome screen where the first step in the design of the experiment selection of the ISES hardware used takes place. Currently there are three types of ISES (USB connected, PCI and Professional) available. When you click at one of them the screen for the selection of measuring modules occurs (Figure 6).

In the left part of the screen the name of the experiment, which is displayed on the website can be set. Furthermore we can set the IP address on which the experiment will be accessible. If we want to operate the experiment only locally, tick the box "Run experiment locally." In this case, the experiment runs at the internal address 127.0.0.1 and it can be opened only from the computer on which it is installed. We can here also add the logo that will be displayed on the website and the diagram of the experiment. The other buttons are used to set the colour of the page header and footer. The middle part of the page is designed as a smooth transition between these two colours. Figure 6. Modules selection window for basic level of RE

This screen is used to select the measuring modules and also for adjusting their range. The selection of modules is done by the pull-down menu on the left side of the window. When the module is selected, its graphical representation appears in the appropriate slot. After measuring modules choice the ranges of measuring modules must be adjusted using the popup menus, available below the modules. The window also contains a button to turn on the advanced level of creation that will be described in the next chapter. If the experiment uses a relay board, you must enable this option by pressing "Relay board" button also on this screen. Once pressed a window appears in which you can connect the relay used. When finished, we may continue pressing the next button. If we have selected some of the output modules, the program will ask for details of the setting. For example, for the relay we may choose if we want to perform the switching manually via a button on a web page, or automatically after fulfilling some conditions comparing the measured and preselected value of any quantity. For other output modules we may set for example the parameters of generated signals or the output voltage. After confirming the selected values the window with website design appears (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Website design window

The main purpose of the screen is to choose the position of individual applets modules) which we chose in the previous step. Modules are displayed in two columns in the right part of the window as inputs and outputs, respectively. The blue colour signals the correct display of the module on the website, the red one not displayed module. To add a new entry of the module just press "Add applet" button, which is available only if one of the inputs / outputs is chosen in the list. After pressing the button "Catalogue of applets" is shown. From it we can choose the way of the display of the value of the chosen quantity (i.e. which applet will be used). After the selection of a desired applet click on "Add to page" button. The window with settings of selected applet will be shown (Figure 8). Its content depends on the chosen applet. It is necessary in this window to set properly all parameters of the applet. Most of the parameters are already filled, so just check whether they correspond to our intention during measurements. In case the applet works with multiple values, they must be set as a parameter. To avoid wrong entry of quantity names, we can just double-click to the box with parameter, and use the "Add variable" button. Similarly, we can also edit colours by choosing from the colour palette.

Figure 8. Applet setting window

After pressing the "Finish" buttton the prograam A this momeent goes backk to the welccome menu. At the experriment is alreeady operationnal, and we can c start using it. Advance level o solutiion "Advaanced" (comppared to the original is still verry simple) waay of creationss is based on the t graphic design d of flow wchart by ussing of the preprepared control blockks. In this way w it is alreaady possible to t put togetheer very compllex control loggic suitable for rather complex remote ISE ES experimeents. This methhod requires a certain amouunt of creativvity and logiccal thinking abbout a sequennce of actionss carried out by b the experim ment. The advanced a leveel of compilinng the ISES RE R is switchhed-on on the window withh a selection of modules (see Figure7) by "Advance design" buttoon.

nd waiting diistinguish stattes as: fillingg, draining an fo or switching of o the probe. A Activities of individual steeps are obvious from thheir names. For ever ex xperiment it is thus neceessary to con nsider all acctions presentt in the experriment and div vide them in nto similar staates before staart of any RE. The best way is to creatte a flowchartt of the experriment and to o divide it intoo individual sstates. In pracctice, each staate has threee basic parts:: entry, exit and step. Th hese parts varry in time off execution off the code th hey represent.. Part "entryy" is always executed on nce, when thhe experimentt enters the state and sim milarly the "eexit" part is eexecuted on leeaving the staate. The midddle part "step"" is repeated until u there is a transitionn to another state. Seq quence of op perations is shown in thhe following g diagram (F Figure 10). Exit

Entry

Step

Exit

Entry

Figure 100. Sequence of operations in one sttate

y the next After comppletion of thee structure by bu utton we can proceed p to thee website desig gn. B..

Figure 9. Addvanced design window w

Proceess of advancced design iss similar to the t basic dessign. It also goes g through the t windows for f selection of modules and design of o websites. The T f advanced level l occurs (F Figure 9).Its left l window for part is a tree t structure representing the t control loggic of the expperiment. On the right side we find a listt of blocks thhat can be inseerted into a treee structure, and a a list of variables. Coompiling of control logic is performed by selectinng of the apppropriate bloock t from the menu and then clicking too the part of the i tree, where the block iss to be placed. If the block is d at the t Selectted and its deescription is displayed bottom of o the window w. Individual blocks have its own stricct rules for inserting to the tree t and may not n be placed anywhere, which is siignalled by the t U enteringg the advanceed design in the t system. Upon tree theree is already placed p the firsst block "Statte". This blocck is the maiin block of thhe entire desiign representting certain step of the t behavioour, performed by the expperiment. As an example we w can meention the experiment water levvel managem ment, which controls thhe liquid levvel between two probess. In such experiment we w

Other functions f of E ER-ISES Developmennt environmennt ER-ISES provide p to sto ore unfinisheed draft of RE. This makes m the reeediting of exxperiment veryy easy. This procedure caan greatly shorten the desiggn work in casse if errors occcur in the design. Saving of expeeriment is peerformed by using u the "Savve" button in the t pop-up menu. m Saving of o project is ppossible only at the last steep of the desiggn (website design). Experiiments are sto ored a speciall file with exttension .ers. Opening O of saaved experimeent can be m made from any ywhere in th he pop-up mennu, or by "Oppen" button directly d on th he welcome screen of development env vironment. An opened expperiment is shhown in the initial step W you moove to the nextt steps the off the design. When daata are alreaddy filled by same values as in the moment m of saviing of the projject.

IV.

RIENCE TESTING AND EXPER NEXT DEV VELOPEMENT

o specific In this chapteer the processs of creation of reemote experim ment is describbed. Specificaally let us co ompile the siimple remote experiment for water temperature conntrol in the aqquarium by a two state ontroller. As a measuring innstrument wee use ISES co th hermometer module. Thhe principle of the temperature control c is ssimple - when w the temperature droops to a definned value, we switch on he relay for water w heating aand switch offf, when it th ex xceeds a certaain defined vaalue of the tem mperature.. In n this way, thhe experimennt should maaintain the water temperaature at a coonstant averaage value co ompatible withh the life of aqquarium inhab bitants. To en nhance the ussability of thhe experimentt, we also

want to record the pH value of water. This as well as the current water temperature will be displayed on the webpage. The individual steps for both the design of the controlling .psc file and corresponding client web page may be subdivided in several simple steps, providing information to the questionnaire screens as follows: 1. Switch on the installed development environment ER-ISES and in the welcome screen ( Figure 4) select the used hardware. In our case, we chose PCI ISES.

5. After confirming the parameters we proceed to the web page design and experiment allocation for running the experiment online one needs to enter the IP address, or we may use the "Run experiment locally" option. Experiment will be available at 120.0.0.1 address and visible on our computer. We can also insert our own logo or experiment diagram to be visible on the web page. We may also set the background colour of the web page.

2. Now we need to select the modules which we will need to measuring and controlling. We need a thermometer ISES module which will for temperature measurement, the relay ISES module for switching of heating, and the ISES pH module. Those modules will be chosen from the drop-down menu with photos of all ISES modules available. Final layout of the ISES modules with thermometer, pH meter and relay chosen for our experiment may look like this:

3. If we press the "Next" button, the query to specify the functioning of the relay is displayed. We can choose either the switching of the relay by the button on the web page or by fulfilling of a condition. Let us choose the condition of comparing the reading the temperature by the thermometer with our desired value:

6. Next we have to adjust the chosen ISES modules. In the inputs and outputs list, there are now entries of the thermometer, pH-meter and relay. Let's select the thermometer first and then click "Add Applet" button to open a list of available applets. From the menu choose "Extract values" applet and add it to the page. The parameters offer adjustment will appear:

4.

In the same way we add the applet to pH-meter. We can also add the graph of time representation of thermometer and pH meter readings to the page, for this purpose serves the applet "Time dependence of value". In the parameters table we change the range of recorded and displayed readings to 5 minutes (300000 ms). We can also adjust the colour of the curve by double-clicking on the colour box value and then on the icon of tin. At this point, we could assign the applet (such as a button) for functioning

of the relay. The last applet we have to add will be the "Record of time dependency of values"for thermometer. At the applet parameters we set the display range, for example from 10 to 40 °C. 7. Now, let us finish with not obligatory advanced design of the web page and make some adjustments to its appearance. By the "Text" button we add two labels for values of thermometer and pH-meter. Those also with relevant applets drag to the one row in the tree structure. Furthermore, we put three more lines by "Row" button. To the first row we insert the title ("Title" button), to other two we insert remaining applets. The tree structure should look like this:

programs design online in a form of e-shop for both hw and sw choice. Library of experiments, which is currently stored on the local disk will in the future run on the web server of the data centre, possibly in cloud virtualized regime. Library will not only allow users to download experiments, but also upload created experiment back to the storage server. This will form online library of experiments that will provide a steady flow of new experiments formed by the users themselves. V. CONCLUSIONS We have described the graphical development environment for remote experiments EASY REMEOTE ISES that enables the design of the controlling software on the basis of the server – client. The system is designed for three types of demandingness of remote experiments by the plug and play approach without any programming, enabling to those interested in remote experimentation especially at schools and universities to master this new and progressive technique for teaching. ACKNOWLEDGMENT Paper was published thanks to the Slovak grant agency APVV project No. APVV 0096-11 and KEGA No 011TTU-4/2012.

REFERENCES 8. Now we can finish the compiling of the remote experiment. We want to save the project for any later changes. This is done by "Save" control in the main menu. We select the name and path of the saved file and confirm. Then we can start remote experiment and we can access it via selected address. 9. For proper operation of the experiment, we must not forget to insert the appropriate sensors into the aquarium and connect the source of heating. Similarly, as we described in this simple experiment we can create any experiment that does not require complex control logic. In the need for complex remote experiments with complex logic structure, we have to resort to Advanced level, described in Chapter III. Future development The just described graphical development environment ER ISES is at present fully functional and is suitable for the compiling without any programming of simple experiments, and for the design of complex solutions requiring advanced control logic as well. At present development work continues in the direction of the iconic choice of steps in control program and web page compiling. Control logic will be created by the choice of graphic blocks instead of the existing applet solutions. Another goal is to operate our system of

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