IFAC PapersOnLine 52-9 (2019) 121–126
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Peer review under responsibility of International Federation of Automatic Control.
10.1016/j.ifacol.2019.08.135
© 2019, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. INTRODUCTION
Among others, in areas such as automation, robotic or
electronics, different approaches for remote laboratories (RL)
are emerging, which allows access to different kinds of
didactic or professional materials. For example, in (Indrusiak
et al., 2007) the reader can get a general overview of RL for
digital systems design. Andújar et al. (2011) presents an
example of this kind of lab, which allows programming and
interacting with a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)
development board. (Al-Hadithi, B.M. et al., 2016; Chacon et
al., 2017; Ruano Ruano, I. et al., 2016) show RL devoted to
automatic control. In addition, in the last work a comparative
of the most outstanding RL of this kind is included. An
example of RL applied to engineering measurement can be
seen in (Restivo et al., 2009). (Nayak, S. et al., 2014) and
(Mejías Borrero and Andújar Márquez, 2012) present
different RL devoted to teaching robotics.
In (Rojko et al., 2010) a power engineering and motion
control RL is presented, which offers 18 complete online
courses with remote experiments and their corresponding
documentation. Within the electrical engineering, there are
some other remote platforms, (Callaghan et al., 2013;
Cardoso et al., 2015).
With respect to photovoltaic systems, there are multiple
studies into the use of remote transmission systems to
monitor them such as (Chao and Chen, 2017) and (Koklu and
Kilinç, 2016), among others. Within the educational field, the
virtual lab possibilities have been explored (Cotfas et al.,
2013), and RL, (Blanchard et al., 2014; Freeman et al., 2012;
Schauer et al., 2012).
However, in all those RL cited above and many other
approaches found in the Literature, the designed solutions to
develop RL can be considered specific. Each of them solves,
in its own way, the different aspects involved in RL
development.
In this paper, a fully open integrated system is proposed,
which offers a way to easily implement cloud services for
managing the configuration and access to all type of sensors,
actuators and controllers (the devices base of the any remote
lab). The access proposed is secure, controlled, organized and
collaborative.
The main improvements of the present work with respect to
the previous version of 2013 are the next:
- The procedure proposed in 2013 was based on Java
and the new one on software supported by the new
generation of browsers.
- The new procedure can join a set of RL connected to
different LANs.
- With the new procedure, the RL is accessible as a
cloud service.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE SYSTEM
Several issues must be clarified before exhibiting the fully
integrated tool.
- First, the meaning of “open”. To be open, the system
must be able to support devices from different
manufacturers whose software does not have to be
Keywords: Remote access, instrumentation, remote sensor, remote pilot plant.
Abstract: An existing lab experience can be made remotely accessible in a relatively easy way. The
problem is with the design of a tool which allows any kind of experience to be made remotely accessible.
The complexity of this tool is out of discussion. Several universities have been working on it for years. In
fact, the Huelva University presented the work “A Complete Solution for Developing Remote Labs” in
the 10th IFAC Symposium on Advances in Control Education (2013). Such complete solution was the
result of those universities working together. Since then, the joint-work has continued and improvements
have also been achieved. Hereafter, a fully open integrated system is presented whose scope is greater
than that of 2013. It offers a way to easily implement cloud services for managing the configuration and
access to all type of sensors, actuators and controllers (the devices base of the any remote lab). The
access proposed is secure, controlled, organized and collaborative.
*** Huelva University, Huelva 21819 Spain (e-mail: andujar@uhu.es).
*Huelva University, Huelva 21819 Spain (e-mail: reyes.sanchez@die.uhu.es).
** Huelva University, Huelva 21819 Spain (e-mail: mjias@uhu.es).
*** Huelva University, Huelva 21819 Spain (e-mail: marcoa@iesppg.net).
R. Sanchez-Herrera*, A. Mejías**, M.A. Márquez***, J.M. Andújar****
The Remote Access to Laboratories: a Fully Open Integrated System