Abstract
The starting point of this thesis is finding answers to the following question:
How can we optimize laboratory equipment use so it could be used by as many people
as possible?
The basic answer for this question is remote controlling of instruments
through Internet. This way complete accessibility to the laboratory can be obtained:
you can make measurements at any time on any day if you have an Internet
connection.
Starting from this point, a study of the evolution and state of the art of
instruments, Internet and tele-education has been developed. These are the three pillars
of this work.
In the study, it can be seen that instrumentation tends to global connectivity
as new equipments include network connection so measurement results can be easily
transferred or the instrument completely controlled through the net.
Distance education is following a similar way. The new communication
channel opened by Internet and computer evolution permits the development of
workplaces for education ranging from easy text with basic hyperlink capabilities to
live transmission of lectures including video, audio, slides and basic communication
between users. Making use of this environments, the distance between students and
teacher or between students themselves is reduced due to collaboration and dialogue
capabilities.
From this point the study of virtual instruments, basic pieces of virtual
laboratories, follows. A huge study and classification has been done that permits
realise of key elements in developing a virtual laboratory
One of the contributions of this thesis is the definition of a reference model
for a virtual laboratory, giving reasons of any elements included. This model
integrates from physical layers of communication to higher application layer in
computers and instruments in an attempt for describing the same way all elements.
Inside this model, the point of use of equipment optimization has been
detailed, proposing different techniques for allowing the maximum number of users
to control the equipment. We want to highlight the proposal of using time
multiplexing of instruments to allow sharing a single instrument between multiple
users.
Finally, the application of this model to a network of laboratories, is an
example of how the proposed model can be developed.