Smart-Lab: Design and Implementation of an IoT-based Laboratory Platform

The omnipresent connectivity and highly distributed intelligence of Internet of Things (IoTs) integrated with Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) emerge as the backbone of advanced remote surveillance and control. A reliable Smart-Lab system using IoT technologies is designed to control the entire activities of a research laboratory. Smart-Lab provides a real IT intelligent environment by exploring the interaction of devices under a single roof enabling a better alignment of the research with researchers and end-users. To this end, heterogeneous IoT devices are integrated into a centralized monitoring system with developed Application Programming Interface (API). The designed API conceals the complexities of wireless communication protocols, and provides a well-defined and easy-to-use way to collect data from sensors. To implement the back-end, a Representational State Transfer (REST) approach is used. Results of different test-beds can be, stored in a MySQL database and visualized for users on the web page through the use of JSON. Then, as a proof of concept, a real-time IoT based environmental monitoring system is designed.