Extralab: A New Way of Management Remote Laboratory in Real Time and in Network: Strengthens, Weakness and Next Challenges

Abstract

Extralab is a French start-up that offers a new concept of full remote decentralized laboratory solution. This solution allows deploying a full laboratory directly on the field to measure natural water quality in real time. The company is born after 5 years of research in CNRS in France. The project was funded with €1.4 million (₹122 million). Today, Extralab is collaborating with research institutes all around the Word (Europe, China, USA). We make water quality monitoring accessible everywhere in real time. Extralab aims to develop (1) Hardware solutions: full online remote laboratory directly deployed on the field and (2) a software solution: Extralab platform which allows to perform all laboratory work online through the platform. Both hardware and software solutions combined together provide a full laboratory solution with the same quality and exigency found in a conventional laboratory but on the field and in real time. The last point is the environmental expertise and scientific exploration helped by machine learning. All this expertise is directly performed continuously and in real time through the platform. This allows strong reactivity for decision maker and save precious time: No delay between the sampling and the expertise results. Extralab address this solution in all places where water resources and management is a big concern. Each remote laboratory represents a node in a network connected together. Each station is sharing experience to help and achieve the full measurement between them. This represents a new way of collaborative laboratory in real time. We will present the development and management of such a lab-field solution by answering the following questions: How can we manage and work on a full remote laboratory? From field missions to data treatment in scientific models, how have we built this collaborative network? We will also present different cases where such full solution is promising.KeywordsWater quality monitoringReal timeLaboratory on the fieldRemote laboratory