An extensible platform for building remote experiment control

Issue title: Selected papers from the ISCA International Conference on Software Engineering and Data Engineering, and the ISCA International Conference on Computer Applications in Industry and Engineering, 2015, and Invited Papers

Guest editors: Takaaki Goto and Narayan C. Debnath

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Bauer, Michael^{a; *} | McIntyre, Stewart^b | Sherry, Nathaniel^a | Armstrong, Chris^c | Haley, John^c | Cross, Matt^d | Qin, Jinhui^a | Khaladj, Azade^a | Khosravi, Arash^a | McIssac, Ken^d

Affiliations: [a] Department of Computer Science, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada | [b] Department of Chemistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada | [c] IBM, Ottawa, ON, Canada | [d] Department of Electrical, and Computer Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Michael Bauer, Department of Computer Science, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 5B7 Canada. Tel.: +1 519 661 3562; E-mail:[email protected]

Abstract: Research equipment, experiment control devices and even industrial equipment, typically require individuals to be present to make use of that equipment. In many cases, this requires researchers to travel to the equipment or move the equipment to specific locations and operate it. With network connectivity becoming more available, even in remote locations, remote operation of such equipment is increasingly possible. This can reduce travel costs, increase the efficiency of use of such equipment and even help with safety. This paper describes work on the creation of a software platform of generic services for access to and use of devices for research, education and potentially for industrial use. The current set of services, the underlying middleware and architecture of the platform are described. Use of the platform to develop remote operation services for a mechatronics laboratory for use by engineering students is presented. The longer term goal is to make the software available to researchers to allow better remote access to experiments in environments such as undersea, deep space, high radiation, and toxic gases.

Keywords: Remote device access, software platform, software services, mechatronics

DOI: 10.3233/JCM-160678

Journal: Journal of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering, vol. 17, no. S1, pp. S35-S46, 2017