Enhanced Data Integration for LabVIEW Laboratory Systems

TL;DR

This paper presents an educational platform that streamlines data integration and management for laboratory systems, including LabVIEW, to enhance teaching and data analysis in measurement technology labs.

Contribution

It introduces a configurable platform for data characterization, web-based lesson generation, and LabVIEW integration, facilitating standardized data handling in educational labs.

Findings

Successful integration of LabVIEW with the platform.

Effective data collection from thermocouple systems.

Enhanced educational resources for measurement labs.

Abstract

Integrating data is a basic concern in many accredited laboratories that perform a large variety of measurements. However, the present working style in engineering faculties does not focus much on this aspect. To deal with this challenge, we developed an educational platform that allows characterization of acquisition ensembles, generation of Web pages for lessons, as well as transformation of measured data and storage in a common format. As generally we had to develop individual parsers for each instrument, we also added the possibility to integrate the LabVIEW workbench, often used for rapid development of applications in electrical engineering and automatic control. This paper describes how we configure the platform for specific equipment, i.e. how we model it, how we create the learning material and how we integrate the results in a central database. It also introduces a case study for collecting data from a thermocouple-based acquisition system based on LabVIEW, used by students for a laboratory of measurement technologies and transducers.