A virtual laboratory for teaching frequency estimation techniques

Recent developments in virtual instrument technologies, remote measurement, distributed systems, and interactive educational environments have greatly changed the traditional approach to teaching and practical experimentation at any educational level, from technical high schools and undergraduate academic courses, to continuous education and training in the industry. This paper presents the education methods and practical realization of a virtual laboratory for students´ education in the field of frequency estimation techniques. A virtual instrument has been developed using LabVIEW software package and the method based on measurement of three consecutive sample signals was applied to measure the unknown frequency of the electrical power network. Unwanted noise is eliminated from the useful signal using adaptive filtering, and greater accuracy of measurements is achieved. Students have the opportunity to change the speed of data acquisition and number of samples, in the aim of testing the proposed measurement method. Remote laboratory is developed in LabVIEW software package and the measurement data are sent to the Internet over TCP/IP protocol. The system consists of a server with measurement equipment and one or more clients which have independent access to the measurement data. The realized virtual instrument was used to do measurements in a real power system network.