2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Education has always been a cornerstone of civilization, fostering knowledge expansion, innovation, and exploration. This is particularly evident in fields such as engineering, where rapid technological advancements demand a continuous evolution in educational approaches. Modern engineering education must move beyond traditional knowledge acquisition to emphasize practical applications and real-world experience. Virtual learning tools, specifically virtual laboratories, play a crucial role in this shift by offering hands-on learning opportunities through realistic simulations. These virtual labs empower students to test, experiment, and refine their skills in environments that closely mimic real-world conditions.
This paper introduces virtual laboratories in the fields of electrical and robotics engineering, enabling students to conduct tests on virtual testbenches, which are designed with very high fidelity to behave as their real counterparts. The main features of these labs are: (i) Interactivity, where students interact in real-time with systems, (ii) Real thing, as labs should not be perceived as video games and students must carefully plan their experiments, otherwise protection will be engaged, (iii) Flexibility, students can change the configuration of the testbench by connecting/disconnecting components to exhibit a given behavior, (iv) Self-learning, where students can acquire knowledge at their own pace, and (v) Accessibility, the students can run the laboratories on their laptop without the need of sophisticated hardware.
The software packages used for these labs include: (i) the real-time simulation engine, (ii) the dynamics engine, (iii) co-simulation libraries, and (iv) optimized solvers featuring pre-calculated matrices, state-space nodal formulation, as well as time-stamped event detection.
The electric virtual labs focus on several key areas: (i) Fundamentals of electrical engineering, featuring basic and advanced electric circuits, transformers, balanced and unbalanced loads; (ii) Power electronics, which addresses choppers, diode- and thyristor-based rectifiers, two-level single- and three-phase inverters, as well as three-phase three-level neutral-point clamped converters; (iii) Electric machines, emphasizing synchronous and asynchronous machines; (iv) Motor drives, including DC-brushed motors, permanent magnet synchronous motors, squirrel cage, and doubly-fed induction motors; (v) Renewable energy, which explores photovoltaic generation systems, wind turbine generation systems, battery energy storage systems (BESS), and microgrids where these components are integrated; and (vi) Advanced power electronics, featuring simulations of uninterruptible power supply systems.
The robotics virtual labs encompass: (i) Serial manipulators, including 3-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) planar and 6-DOF spatial with both coupled and decoupled architectures; (ii) Parallel manipulators, such as 3-DOF planar and the 6-DOF Stewart platform; (iii) Wheeled mobile robots, which involve Ackermann- and articulated-based steering, differential-drive, and wheeled pendulums; and (iv) Autonomous off-road vehicles, enabling students to interact with and understand complex systems in a practical, hands-on manner.

By providing a highly realistic and flexible learning environment, these virtual labs represent a significant step forward in engineering education. Students gain the opportunity to grasp intricate concepts and hone their skills in a safe and controlled setting, paving the way for a deeper understanding of both electrical and robotics engineering. This paper demonstrates how virtual laboratories can enhance educational outcomes by equipping students with the practical experience needed to thrive in rapidly advancing technical fields.