IMPLEMENTING REMOTE LABORATORIES WITH THE ILAB ARCHITECTURE: THREE CASE STUDIES FROM OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY, NIGERIA

摘要

A number of remote labs based on the iLabs Architecture have been developed and used for credit awarding courses in Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Nigeria. These include the Op-Amp iLab, Logic Design iLab, and Robotic Arm iLab. The Op-Amp Lab allows students to access a small operational amplifier circuit hosted in OAU, and with the aid of switching matrices, reconfigure the circuit, inject waveforms, and see the resulting output signals. The Logic Design Lab is built around a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chip that students can reprogram from afar using the VHDL, a hardware description language. The Robotic Arm iLab is a control engineering laboratory in which students can remotely control a robotic arm located in OAU. Video feedback through BroadCam Video Streaming Server and Livestream (www.livestream.com) allows users observe and measure the robotic arm’s response to their commands. In our paper, we describe the iLab Batched and Interactive architectures and describe three iLabs developed in OAU in detail. Emphasis is placed on technical details and design choices made in developing these labs. We also discuss other aspects of iLab development and use and dwell on issues that could hinder or accelerate the adoption of remote laboratories in developing countries. Keywords: User system, Service Broker, Lab Server, iLab, rlab.