Characterising solar cell through Remote Virtual Reality Laboratory

Distance education has evolved significantly with technological advancements and the widespread availability of the Internet, making remote laboratories a crucial component in modern educational frameworks. These laboratories integrate Virtual Reality (VR) and open-source technologies to offer immersive, hands-on learning experiences that complement theoretical knowledge with practical applications. This paper explores the development and implementation of a virtual remote laboratory designed to simulate real-world experiments. The case study focuses on the practical task of measuring the I-V characteristic of a solar cell. The hardware is controlled by a Raspberry Pi. The front- end is developed using the A- Frame framework. The remote user can manipulate the instruments through a VR headset orawebbrowserwitha3Dgraphical interface. The architectural design, utilizing a service-oriented approach and Lab as a Service (LaaS) model, facilitates flexible deployment and accessibility. Key components include the lab manager, lab server, and user interface, which collectively enable students to interact remotely with experiments, manipulate parameters, and obtain real-time results. By overcoming traditional constraints such as physical proximity and resource limitations, virtual remote laboratories play a crucial role in enhancing the accessibility, engagement, and effectiveness of distance education, particularly in response to global challenges like the Demographic growth and physical space.