Taking the lab into the classroom: Using mobile technology to monitor and receive data from CNC machines

Technology education requires students to understand how theory relates to practice. This relation is established during laboratory sessions carried out during the course. Unfortunately, this laboratory work is often conducted in after-class sessions, limiting the opportunity for the professor to show in theory and practice in parallel, losing the opportunity to maximize learning. The present work shows how a CNC lathe located 70 miles away from ITESM Campus Toluca was instrumented and set up with a three-component piezoelectric dynamometer, piezoelectric accelerometers, and an impulse hammer in order to receive force, acceleration, and stiffness measurements in real time. Inside the classroom, the professor and students will use tablet PCs, laptops, and handhelds to visualize the data during the lecture, so students can relate machining theory and dynamic analysis concepts with practice. Students will also be able to send a CNC program to the lathe and retrieve the current program loaded from it. Because of the distances, the system will use Internet and wireless communications for the data exchange.