Design Of The Architecture Of A Virtual Laboratory System Based On 3D And VIRTOOLS Technologies

The experiment is an indispensable part of the popularization of science, the higher education and the distance education. Currently, most experiments are operated by students in the real laboratory, and this mode has some disadvantages such as large investment, wastage, low efficiency, long cycle, maintenance difficulties and dangers. By the virtual laboratory way, experiments can be completed the same tasks as those in a real laboratory, and the effects of learning or training are substitutable or even better than those obtained in a real environment.In this paper, the related development technologies of the virtual experiment and the virtual laboratory are firstly compared and introduced. A new development approach of virtual laboratory based on 3D and VIRTOOLS is proposed supported by the project—"Research on the basic theories of the extensible modeling and simulation based on Web service technologies", of which, the methods of the experimentation data analysis, the design of architectures and the function modules are discussed in detail. Finally, a virtual lab of the high school physics experiment is developed. It is showed by practice that it can make the developments of virtual laboratories more simplification, and can improve the efficiency, the facticity and the interaction, etc.Some main contents for this project as the follows: (1) a new development approach of the virtual experiment based on 3D and VIRTOOLS technologies named VVE is proposed. Namely, the VVE constructs the 3D experiment scene and creates the 3D animation with 3DMAX, processes and interacts on the experiment data with VIRTOOLS; (2) two approaches of the virtual experimentation data disposal are discussed based on the ordinary experiment. Namely, one is programmed with BBS within VIRTOOLS, and the other one is exploited by the JSP technologies; (3) a new architecture of the virtual laboratory is proposed, and its function modules and realizing ways are illustrated in detail.At last, a summary and a prospect of this paper are given.