Real-time Animation of Equipment in a Remote Laboratory
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The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal Real-time Animation of Equipment in a Remote Laboratory Mark Schulz Feng Chen Len Payne The University of Queensland 1
Real-time Animation of Equipment in a Remote Laboratory
This is a talk on the iLab remote laboratory system given at REV 2014 (International Conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation) at Porto, Portugal. The talk was presented in the Best Paper section of the conference (but didn't win :( ). Check out the paper through IEEE Explore.
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1. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal
Real-time Animation of Equipment in a Remote Laboratory Mark Schulz
Feng Chen Len Payne The University of Queensland 1
2. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal
Real-time Animation of Equipment in a Remote Laboratory Mark Schulz
Feng Chen Len Payne The University of Queensland 2 This is me. I
had the idea to introduce real-time data. I got the idea while I
was playing around with a messaging system to transport sensor
data. I also believe that the data should be widely and freely
available, as someone may be able to make a use for it that is
completely new or novel.
3. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal
Real-time Animation of Equipment in a Remote Laboratory Mark Schulz
Feng Chen Len Payne The University of Queensland 3 This is the
student I set the task of making my idea real. He was a Java
programmer who had no idea about real-time messaging, graphics,
animation, or remote laboratories before the start of the project.
Over two semesters he got this working.
4. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal
Real-time Animation of Equipment in a Remote Laboratory Mark Schulz
Feng Chen Len Payne The University of Queensland 4 This is the
developer of the iLab software. He rewrote the iLab software in
Java, and introduced the idea of a separate Experiment Engine,
which led to the development of a farm of rigs which can be shared
seamlessly between users. he helped Feng Chen interface the
real-time hooks - but not a lot of help.
5. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal UQ
Radiation Experiment Rig 5 1. This is part of a live video feed of
the equipment. 2. If you were a student, would you have an
understanding of how the equipment works just from this view? How
can I be sure that a student using this rig has the same mental
model of this rig as me? Will student engage if no
understanding?
6. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal UQ
User Interface 6 To illustrate the point: here is the first
interface to the experiment rig. Here we are selecting the
distances at which to make the measurements, the number of
measurements to make and the time for each measurement. Has this
helped that understanding of the rig?
7. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal User
view of Status User must click Check button to discover time to
completion. 7 Here we check whether the experiment is completed.
The user must continually hit the Check button to get an update
from the rig.
8. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal
Results Page 8 Here we see the results obtained AFTER the
experiment has been completed.
9. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal9
Heres the question: Do you really understand how these results were
produced? ! A better approach was taken by the folks at
Northwestern University.
10. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal
Northwestern University User Interface 10 iLabCentral.org Here is
the first page of the experiment - note that students have already
done a lot of preparation work before getting to this part of the
experiment check out the website as it was designed with the help
of high school teachers, instructional designers, and web
designers. ! The top left corner is a Flash animation that students
can manipulate to gain a clearer understanding of how the equipment
works.
11. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal
Animation in Action 11 How would we be able to drive this
animation: NOT from the sliders and buttons, but from REAL
DATA?
12. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal The
Next Steps? GIVEN: Using Batch Mode iLab Shared Architecture 12
Display the animation (HTML5, CSS, Javascript) REQUIRED TO: Collect
data from rig Transmit data to the animation(s) We are using the
iLab Shared Architecture for our remote labs - albiet a modified
version of this. Had to be able to display in the browser with no
installed adding so that software can run anywhere. (==> 2D but
no 3D yet)
13. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal
Client Service Broker Lab Server Standard Batch-Mode iLab Shared
Architecture 13 This is the standard architecture for batch mode
operation. We dont want to change this basic architecture, but
enhance it without breaking all our other experiments.
14. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal
Client Service Broker Lab Server Experiment Engine Enhanced iLab
Batch Architecture 14 This is a previously report extension:
separating out the Experiment Engine from the Lab Server. We run
our Service Broker and Lab Server software on centrally maintained
hardware (good and bad points to this). BUT, it does allow us to
do
15. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal
Client Service Broker Lab Server Experiment Engine Experiment
Engine Experiment Engine iLab Experiment Farm 15 Users see one
interface to up to five rigs. Users get allocated a rig on a round
robin basis. Easy to drop one out due to failure or maintenance.
MUST ensure that experiment is not compromised by swapping rigs
between runs!!
16. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal
Client Service Broker Lab Server Equipment Engine Message Server
Display Collect data from the rig Mosquitto message server
utilising MQTT: optimised for M2M communication !
http://mosquitto.org/ http://mqtt.org/ 16 Heres what we did to add
real-time delivery of data. This is a publish/suscribe messaging
system
17. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal17
Topic: ilab/radiation-1/Radioactivity/Simulation/Raw/Status PUBLISH
Experiment Engine Open Display Software Client Display SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE .... Publish-Subscribe Model Experiment Engine PUBLISHes
a message to a topic on the message server. Message server sends
message to each SUBSCRIBEr connected to the system. Message server
is able to handle large numbers of topics, subscribers, and
messages per second.
18. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal
Transmit data to the animation(s) 18 Client Service Broker Lab
Server Equipment Engine Message Server Display DisplayDisplay
Display Extensions to this are to add real-time data into a number
of external software subsystems: a data base to enable replay of
real-time messages to drive a simulation to allow tinkering with
the system by the user. Also collection of statistical data about
usage, etc. > learning analytics
19. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal
Display the Animation Uses Adobe Edge (HTML5, CSS, Javascript) for
animation (no Flash) 19 This is where it gets interesting we have
no movie because the student kept part of the system running on his
laptop and not on our servers. Didnt find this out until recently
when we tried to run up his demo again. However, we are heading
into a total rewrite of his code, so no damage for the future. !
Points to note: status covers selecting source, moving GM tube, as
for Northwestern interface, but driven from REAL DATA.
20. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal Some
Lessons Learnt 2D animations can be reasonable for real-time
animation. 20 Dont let students use their own laptop for the nal
demonstration of a server based product! Engineers are more data
focussed, students still trying to understand what they are doing.
User Interface Design (UI & UX) is CRITICAL! Dont let students
choose their favourite programming language Language: The animation
involves a Java plugin in this case because they didnt feel
comfortable with Javascript. UI and UX are ESSENTIAL - we need to
use experts not engineers who build the rigs! More than what a
graphical designer can provide, actually need an animator! Our
experience with educational designers indicates these people need
to be more involved in our work.
21. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal
Extension Work Put more hooks into the operational data. Add
storage for replay of experiment. Add more visualisations of the
data, e.g., queue data for progress bar. 21 Client Service Broker
Lab Server Equipment Engine Message Server Display DisplayDisplay
Database Externalise more of the internal operation of every part
of the software. Place in queue and progress bar for job are next
things to get going. Helps link to video to know what you are
looking at. Use federate servers to control what data is seen
where, and to control loads on message servers.
22. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal RT
Mapping of Service Broker Access to UQ Radiation Lab Extend to user
access: where in the world is the current user? 22 Here is an
example of one real-time extension when we expose location data. Se
dont get data in the lab server of where the user is, so we just
mapped the service broker. Need to extend the protocol to give GPS
coordinates of users (not expose the identity).
23. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal
Thank You Questions & Comments? 23
https://github.com/nicochen/AnimaitonRadioactivityiLab
24. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal New
iLab Sneak Preview New Service Broker: now a service Support for
alternative authentication schemes (Facebook, Google, Blackboard
via LTI) User-generated interfaces to Lab servers RESTful client
interface to legacy iLab LabServers RESTful LabServer interface for
new experiments. 24 New service broker written in Node.js!!
25. The University of Queensland REV 2014, Porto, Portugal New
UQ iLab on Photon Entanglement Test platform for our extended
architecture. ! Due for initial deployment in July 2014 ! Equipment
is already in use in a honours physics course, just not available
remotely. 25 ADVERTISEMENT