Development of Web Based Real Time Remote Laboratory for Teaching and Learning

A concept has been developed that utilizes the internet to conduct live laboratory exercises under remote condition. The idea about remote laboratory is based on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) philosophy, controlling system and communication. The integration of these three components plays an important role in making the facility accessible and operational online. In order to realize this concept, an open-source development tool called Node-RED which links the user and the remote facility via a web interface platform has been adopted. Node-RED is a programming tool for connecting hardware, Application Programming Interface (API) and online services in various ways. The node-red dashboard allows users to carry out remote experiments. This strategy would also allow users to leverage internet resources to implement laboratory exercise by eliminating relevant time and space limitation problems. An experimental setup was created to demonstrate the above-mentioned remote laboratory model. Various types of sensors and actuators were used to replace physical interaction between the end-user and the laboratory deployment. A microcontroller was employed to process and relay the data between the host computer and the equipment. It was shown that the communication between the web and remote infrastructure was successfully established and the facility was able to be accessed and operated via the web-based interface using internet protocol. This endeavor serves as an important milestone towards realizing internet-based education particularly in science, technology and engineering streams which primarily involves physical laboratory exercise.