Matlab virtual laboratory for Moodle based on .NET technology

Abstract

Virtual laboratories has become a standard part of education and research. Although nowadays there exist many examples how to build them it is still advantageous to create new solutions that are universal, more flexible and comfortable to use. This paper describes the design of a new application developed for the purpose of virtual laboratories. It is based on the Microsoft .NET technology and Matlab/Simulink platform. In comparison with older versions the new one uses new progressive methods of .NET technology and REST architecture for communication. This allows simplification of its construction, easy modification according to new requirements as well as a simple creation of client applications. Moreover the designed application is integrated with Moodle e-learning system environment that enables comfortable access for its registered users. The new virtual laboratory application facilities will be demonstrated on several dynamical systems. The architecture of the designed solution consists of three main components: server, Moodle and browser (Fig. 1). The server includes Matlab COM Automation server that enables to run the Matlab application and exchange data with it using COM technology. Further the server communicates with Moodle using ASP.NET Web API framework. The server is written in C# programming language. Moodle (in the role of a client) communicates with the server using GET and POST methods and it also communicates with a browser as a backend using JSON objects. Moodle uses PHP scripts to generate dynamical Web pages. Finally the browser interprets the Web pages consisting of HTML code and asynchronous JavaSript language with JQuery library. The resulting Web application for the virtual laboratory provides users with description of dynamical models, displaying corresponding block diagrams, setting parameters, performing simulations, displaying numerical results, showing graphs, animations and video of dynamical systems responses.