A Software-Centered Virtual–Physical Integrated Experimental Platform for Synchronous Generator Education

Synchronous-generator experiments help students connect electrical-machine theory with observable voltage and current responses, but direct operation of rotating machinery and protected fault circuits requires careful supervision. Building on an existing Web-based control-algorithm platform, this work extends the graphical modeling environment with electrical-circuit modules and control–circuit hybrid processing for undergraduate electrical engineering education. The resulting platform connects browser-based hybrid modeling, simulation preview, automatic code generation, virtual real-time execution, permission-controlled physical operation, and configurable waveform monitoring in one teaching workflow. Fifteen selectable operating conditions are identified by four-bit scenario codes and mapped to relay–contactor states in the device-interface layer; separately authorized commands can trigger transient experiments. A protected 20 kW laboratory synchronous generator set is used to illustrate the platform implementation. The protected load-side three-phase short-circuit activity demonstrates the student process from model loading and virtual preparation to physical operation, waveform observation, and post-experiment analysis. The platform has been deployed across two undergraduate cohorts. In a voluntary post-activity assessment with 126 valid questionnaires, the four-item waveform and parameter-calculation task yielded a summed item mean of 8.15 out of 10, and student-experience responses were generally favorable. These descriptive results do not establish a causal learning gain.