Real-Time Remote Access Laboratory with Distributed and Modular Design

Abstract

Remote access laboratories (RALs) are online environments for operating instruments and collecting measurement data over the Internet. Such systems are often deployed by universities to support undergraduate students and generally follow the client-server paradigm. This paper discusses a RAL system that enables peer-to-peer (P2P) experimental design and sharing. For this, a modular design is required, which allows participating nodes to create rigs and host those individually at distributed locations. The proposed architecture is generic and can be used with any distributed P2P network control systems over the Internet. In this paper, a distributed remote control framework is presented with regard to a P2P RAL system. The experiments in the RAL require three subsystems handling the user interface, instruction interpretation, and instruction execution which can be organized and operated in different manners depending upon the experiment. The key component for creating and controlling experiments is the microcontrollers that can be easily obtained, configured, and set up for use over the Internet. The most popular microcontrollers are examined for suitability to the distributed control architecture. The basic layout of a message-based network protocol suitable for programming the devices and communication between peers for remote instrumentation and control is discussed, and queuing and flow control mechanisms are compared and tested for the proposed framework.