Design and Development of Virtual Laboratory: A Solution to the Problem of Laboratory Setup and Management of Pneumatic Courses in Bulacan State University College of Engineering

Experiential learning has been proven to be of great benefit to students. In universities, such learning pedagogies are commonly accomplished through laboratory experiments. With the rapid rate of the development of new technologies, integration of industry practices, as well as simulation of industry environment, has never been more necessary. However, lack of facilities, equipment and laboratory space has been a major constraint of universities in the country. This is evident in Bulacan State University, which houses 5000 students in College of Engineering alone, distributed in eight (8) courses. Maintenance and management of laboratory equipment has also been problematic due to the vast number of lecturers and students that uses these facilities. In this paper, virtual reality is utilized in the development of laboratory simulations for pneumatics. Research and interview was conducted in order for the researchers to be familiar with the laboratory experiments performed in pneumatic courses. Rendering of the pneumatic components were done through Blender. Unity was used to develop the virtual reality environment. The researchers were able to create a simple experiment on a single-acting cylinder operated by a pneumatic switch. The experiment included the full use of the Vive gear, wherein the students are in a completely immersive 3D virtual reality environment, which included the use of controllers to simulate the actual environment. The software was run through Steam, and was tested by students from the university. The participants evaluated the software after simulation.