Design and Development of a Multi-Purpose Collaborative Remote Laboratory Platform

TL;DR

This work-in-progress presents a multi-purpose collaborative remote laboratory platform designed to support research on remote-lab collaboration across disciplines. The approach combines a distributed web-based collaborative workspace, a remote desktop gateway (Apache Guacamole), embedded video conferencing (Jitsi), and lab virtualization via VirtualBox, all under role-based access and time-slot booking. The system is built with loosely coupled components and a reverse proxy for site-wide deployment, enabling scalable cross-institution use. An initial evaluation in an FPGA board development course demonstrates feasibility with 42 students, 20 groups, and provisioned hardware including Zybo boards, Vivado software environments, and sensor hardware. The results position the platform as a foundation for future research on collaborative remote labs across diverse disciplines and use cases.

Abstract

This work-in-progress paper presents the current development of a new collaborative remote laboratory platform. The results are intended to serve as a foundation for future research on collaborative work in remote laboratories. Our platform, standing out with its adaptive and collaborative capabilities, integrates a distributed web-application for streamlined management and engagement in diverse remote educational environments.

Figures (3)

• Figure 1: Collaborative workspace user interface
• Figure 2: The implemented system for collaborative work in remote laboratories.
• Figure 3: User interface for time slot booking