VISIR is a remote laboratory for wiring and measuring electric circuits. It uses a PXI platform and relay switching matrix to connect various instruments. Several universities have implemented VISIR labs. Efforts are underway to standardize VISIR using LXI instruments, reduce costs, and integrate VISIR into learning management systems and online lab frameworks to enable broader access and sharing of lab resources.

1. DESIGN OF PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES IN ELECTRONICS
USING VISIR
REMOTE LABORATORIES
Mohamed Tawfik, Elio Sancristobal, Sergio Martín, Charo Gil, Pablo Losada, Gabriel
Díaz, Manuel Castro
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
Spanish University for Distance Education‐UNED

2. Background
• VISIR is a remote laboratory for wiring and measurement of electric and
electronic circuits on a bread board.

3. Background
• The Signal Processing Department ASB at Bleking Institute of Technology
(BTH) in Sweden together with National Instruments in USA (as a supplier
of instruments) and Axiom EduTECH in Sweden (as a supplier of
education, technical software, and engineering services for noise and
vibration analysis) have launched the Virtual Instrument Systems in
Reality (VISIR) Project by the end of 2006.
• The project was financially supported by BTH and the Swedish
Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA).

4. VISIR (Virtual Instrument Systems In Reality)

5. Traditional Electronic Laboratory

6. PXI Platform
=
=

7. PXI Platform

8. Relay Switching Matrix
Components
OSCI CH1
OSCI CH1
DMM LOW
DMM HIGH
FGENA
DC Power
Supply

9. Relay Switching Matrix
Commands
Relay Switching Matrix

10. Relay Switching Matrix
A
0
B
COM
C
X1
D
X2
E
X3
=
F
X4
G
X5
H
X6
I

11. Relay Switching Matrix

12. Operation Cycle
Max Lists Component List
HTTP HTTP
HTTPS XML XML
TCP/IP TCP/IP
Equipment server software
Measurement server LabVIEW
Web Server (Visual C++)
Apache
HTTP
TCP/IP
Database
MySQL PXI Platform + Relay
WebPage switching matrix
(php and Flash) Equipment server

14. User Interface

15. Virtual Workbench

16. Virtual workbench

17. Implementation
So far, 7 universities and institutes have already implemented a VISIR :
• Bleking Institute of Technology (BTH).
• Carinthia University of Applied Sciences.
• FH Campus Wien University of applied sciences.
• Polytechnic Institute of Porto (ISEP).
• University of Deusto.
• Spanish University for Distance Education (UNED).
• Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT‐M).

18. Implementation

19. International Association of Online Engineering
• One important objective of the
VISIR project is to create a lab
community consisting of all the
participant universities and
organizations. Consequently, it
would be possible to create a grid
laboratory where the nodes are
online lab workbenches distributed
among those universities. This
would allow sharing lab recourses
and sharing online workbenches.
• The IAOE have created the VISIR
Special Interest Group (SIG VISIR)

20. VISIR‐LXI
• University of Deusto is developing a new
LXI‐based VISIR system, in which all the
instruments are replaced with IVI drivers
instruments (instead of NI) and LXI
complaint.
• The aim is to:
1. Use standards devices, not proprietary
solutions
2. reduce the cost of the PXI instruments.
3. Use a commercial switching matrix and
not a proprietary one.
4. increase the system flexibility.
5. permit the system integration into
WebLab‐Deusto architecture, which
would make it easily integrated to an
LMS.

21. VISIR‐iLab
• The System Engineering
Department at Carinthia University
of Applied Science together with
BTH are working on the integration
VISIR into ISA framework to provide
users form iLabs Community the
possibility of deploying and using
VISIR in their ISA framework and to
take the advantages of the services
provided by ISA. This integration
allows sharing of VISIR with a high
load capacity in an efficient way.

22. VISIR‐LMS
• The Electrical and computer engineering department at UNED is
researching into the integration of the services provided by the VISIR
interface with those provided by LMS. By this way, users could access to
VISIR through the LMS with a single sign‐on and every account type in
the LMS (teacher, student, administrator, etc.) would have the same
privileges of its equivalent account type in VISIR interface.

23. VISIR‐LMS
• A module to add laboratories has already been created for
Moodle.
• The next step is to communicate this module with VISIR by
web services.

24. VISIR‐LMS
• A module to add laboratories has already been created for
Moodle.
• The next step is to communicate this module with VISIR by
web services.

25. VISIR‐LMS
• VISIR in Moodle (embedded in HTML)

26. Mohamed Tawfik, Elio Sancristobal, Sergio Martín, Charo Gil, Pablo Losada, Gabriel
Díaz, Manuel Castro
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
Spanish University for Distance Education‐UNED