DCL: a real time portable distributed control telelaboratory

In the last few years the number of telelaboratories all over the world has significantly increased as they have proved to represent a valid support to conventional teaching tools. Telelaboratories allow a large number of people to access a limited number of resources, for instance students can learn the direct kinematics of a serial manipulator by moving a robotic arm that can be physically placed on the other side of the world. This paper proposes a Distributed Control Lab (DCL) which extends the conventional idea of a telelaboratory, as it can be used as a portable telelaboratory, completely contained inside a Live Linux-RTAI DVD, which can be connected to a large number of real plant to perform a process supervision task. The control panel consists of a user-friendly interface where a wide variety of graphical effects (including 3D models) can be associated to plant variables, so that it is very easy to interact with the underlying process. The software architecture of the DCL, the didactic benefits of the DCL and innovative uses of the proposed telelaboratory are described in detail. Interesting future ideas along this line of research are also outlined.