Design and Implementation of Web-Based Virtual Mobile Robot Laboratory for Engineering Education

Serdar Solak,Emine Dogru Bolat,Önder Yakut

doi:10.3390/sym12060906

Abstract

A web-based virtual and remote laboratory environment is developed, realized and proposed for real time control and monitoring of a mobile robot in an indoor environment. In this laboratory, a real time and continuous video stream of indoor laboratory environment is viewed by wireless IP camera mounted to the ceiling. The localization of the robot is also implemented using this IP camera. In this environment, a virtual target and virtual obstacles are located anywhere on the video image taken by the user. The robot is guaranteed to arrive at the virtual target avoiding virtual obstacles using the shortest path. The video stream of the robot’s navigation is monitored through the web environment. The robot is controlled by a BeagleBoard-xM single board computer. The PC web server symmetrically communicates with the other web server on the BeagleBoard-xM, executing developed application software. Since genetic algorithms generate alternative solutions, it is utilized as a path planning algorithm. Parameters such as population size and maximum generation of genetic algorithms applied to get the shortest path for the robot are tuned via the web-based virtual laboratory environment. The robot is also controlled manually through the web environment. At the conclusion of the experiments, the results are monitored on the web-based virtual laboratory environment. A low-cost mobile robot virtual remote laboratory is designed and implemented for engineering education in this paper. Consequently, survey and some experimental works, of the usability and performance of the RRC-Lab (remote robot control-laboratory) system are confirmed by students.

Highlights

Web-based research laboratories are commonly used for distance research or education
Experimental results generated by the BeagleBoard-xM are viewed
The request from the web server, the system clock of the BeagleBoard-xM, the status of the serial port, the start from the web server, the system clock of the BeagleBoard-xM, the status of the serial port, the start and and end of the robot’s motion and the motion duration are displayed

Summary

Introduction

Web-based research laboratories are commonly used for distance research or education. One of the web-based laboratory applications is remote control of the robots. Guimarães et al [1] suggest a virtual laboratory named REAL providing remote access to a mobile robot infrastructure. A sophisticated access framework, a communication infrastructure supporting multimedia flows, and a component-based software construction are employed in REAL. Open standards such as HTTP, HTML, XML, Java, et cetera, and a common object request broker architecture (CORBA) are benefits of REAL. They enable the researchers to do experiments on robot control and navigation methods [1]. Šafaric et al [2] propose a remote rapid control prototyping (RRCP) based on Symmetry 2020, 12, 906; doi:10.3390/sym12060906 www.mdpi.com/journal/symmetry

Methods

Results

Conclusion