Design of a digital tool for visualizing the movement of a hydraulic arm

The implementation of virtual laboratories based on blended education has grown in importance due to the recent events developed worldwide because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This motivated the design of a new virtual tool in MS Excel for transforming the delivery methodology of the Hydraulics Lab in the UiT. This paper shows the design of such digital educational tool which will be implemented in the next academic year, to enable the Mechanical Engineering students to virtually change different parameters to visualize and understand the movement of the different components of a hydraulic arm, which comprises 3 levers with 4 degrees of freedom (3 of them in the plane). The virtual lab consists of simulating the hydraulic arm as a 2D structure in the digital tool which allows the students to interact with the structure before the attendance to the lab and/or substituting completely the on-site activity when required. This tool represents the possibility for this laboratory to be taken by students located in different places around the globe, fostering collaboration among different institutions across Europe.