Photovoltaic System as a Remote Didactic Laboratory for Electrical Engineering Courses

Abstract

Remote laboratories are increasingly being used in academic courses, especially in science and engineering. New control systems allow the development of even complex experiments with a low cost. In this paper we present a remote laboratory that reproduces a small-scale photovoltaic system, including a solar panels and lights, a charge controller, a battery and a dummy load. A Raspberry PI microcontroller is used to send the different inputs to the laboratory, handling commands, measuring some electrical quantities and provide remote access via the web. The laboratory, developed with the involvement of graduating students, will be used in the Master courses of electrical engineering. Particular attention has been paid on the development of hardware and software, to use the developed laboratory as a model for the realization of other experiments.