The Virtual Experiences Lab - a platform for global collaborative engineering and beyond

Abstract

We are developing the Virtual Experiences (Vx)Lab, a research and research training infrastructure and capability platform for global collaboration. VxLab comprises labs with visualisation capabilities, including underpinning networking to global points of presence, videoconferencing and high-performance computation, simulation and rendering, and sensors and actuators such as robotic instruments locally and in connected remote labs. VxLab has been used for industry projects in industrial automation, experimental research in cloud deployment, workshops and remote capability demonstrations, teaching advanced-level courses in games development, and student software engineering projects. Our goal is for resources to become a "catalyst" for IT-driven research results both within the university and with external industry partners. Use cases include: multi-disciplinary collaboration, prototyping and troubleshooting requiring multiple viewpoints and architectures, dashboards and decision support for global remote planning and operations.