ITEE Innovation Expo 2008 : Project Details

Remotely accessible embedded development systems (iLab)

Remote laboratories have begun attracting more attention over the last couple of years, however what is really meant by remote laboratories? Remote laboratories are implemented in such a way that the student doesn’t have to be physically located in the laboratory in order to complete the experiment. Remote labs allow the students to interact with the same equipment through an interface which is made available over internet or school network, so that they can work on the experiment as if they where physically working in the laboratory. iLabs is a software infrastructure developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which is designed to encourage and support these remote laboratories by providing services such as authentication, scheduling and administration. This thesis aims to further develop an initial prototype of a remotely accessible laboratory system which uses the iLabs architecture. The system consists of a client interface which communicates to the iLabs scheduling service and lab server service which is on the PC directly connected to the embedded system under test. The aim of the client is to allow students to connect microcontroller pins to other interfaces emulated in software in order to test their developed program. The client should be able to provide reasonable feedback to the user which in this case is shown graphically. The complete system has been designed, implemented and released to students. Students can book time slots to access the embedded development system and then interact with the embedded system all from a remote location.