An Approach to Convert Conventional Laboratories Into IoT-Enabled Laboratories

Practical learning methodologies have become the need of the hour in the education sector, in particular in engineering education, to achieve technical competencies and skills. Advancements in web-based learning strategies have evolved over the years, and technology has played a major role in creating e-learning resources, among which remote labs are the ones transforming engineering laboratory delivery structure. In the present work, the methodology of improvising an existing traditional automation laboratory into an internet of things (IoT)-enabled laboratory with remote operation is presented. The implementation process of industrial internet of things (IIoT) for enabling remote operation of automation laboratory at the NIE, India is described in this paper. This paper describes the implementation of novel learning platform for programmable logic controllers (PLC), industrial PC (IPC), and hydraulic laboratories using a common IIoT architecture and framework. Additionally, user-level web-based application is created to control the use of all laboratory equipment from remote locations.