Robotic Laboratory for Distance Education

The project required the team to design and construct a remote laboratory experience. The system was designed to convey as much of the in-lab experience as possible by allowing the user to directly manipulate hardware and receive visual feedback in real time. The task chosen for the remote user is an optical engineering experiment: aligning a spatial filter. The team instrumented the physical laboratory with hardware, motors, cameras, and integrated software to allow a user at a remote location with an Internet connection to move the optical hardware and perform the experiment. Each degree of freedom in the experiment is motorized and accepts commands from a remote location. In addition, the online user interface provides visual feedback for the person performing the experiment so they can see what is happening and determine what to do next. These functions are coordinated by custom software and use microcontrollers and microprocessors. The remote user can learn important concepts from this experiment while connecting theory to the physical world by actually seeing the outcome of a procedure, a learning experience often lost in distance learning. The system also provides a laboratory experience for students taking online courses who may not have access to laboratory equipment.