A DISTANCE LEARNING MODEL FOR INTERNET BASED TELEOPERATION Ioana BARDA ∗ Lehel CSOKMAI ∗∗ Tiberiu VESSELNYI ∗∗∗ Radu Catalin TARCA ∗∗∗∗ Florin POPENTIU VLADICESCU Mihaela MIHAI ∗∗∗∗∗∗
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Abstract: This paper proposes to present the reliability of WEB services applied on a mechatronic lab driven by a server connected to the internet offering virtual and remote interactivity for users running a client application. The interaction with robots in the same laboratory or with robots from different laboratories located in different geographical areas is quite difficult to achieve. A collaborative elaboratories network architecture is used not only for cooperative research, but also for teaching mechatronics in a collaborative e-learning approach. This distributed multi-robot environment is composed mainly of the robots communication interfaces, data acquisition controllers, one server for every lab that communicate through an OCD camera with the physical system. The complex distributed application running on three servers offers access to everyone interested in robot manipulation for studying different methods of cooperation between robots or for learning mechatronic subjects. In this kind of protocols, one node (the receiver) exchanges data packets with another node (the sender) to let the receiver synchronize to the sender's clock. One of the classic protocols for this is the network time protocol (NTP). Keywords: e-learning, reliability, robots, internet, blended learning
I.
INTRODUCTION
One of the most important intellectual functions of intelligent systems and the spring to the development of new capacities, skills, understanding etc., learning is based on the acquisition of different types of knowledge sustained by perceived information. Naturally suited to distance learning [4], but widely utilized in other types of learning too, Elearning [1], [19], [20], Computer-Based Training (CBT), Internet-Based Training (IBT) [10], WebBased Training and a whole lot of other names are used to describe a new type of learning, where the medium of instruction is computer technology and people immerse themselves into a 3D environment or simply interact with characters or objects on screens [2]. In higher education especially, as in the case of our mechatronic lab, the tendency is towards creating a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) [21], in which all aspects of a course are handled through a consistent user interface standard throughout the institution. The virtual mechatronic lab discussed in this paper is targeted at those interested in robot manipulation or in mechatronics. For a safe communication we use web services based on the HTTP/HTML protocol. Our mechatronic virtual lab has definite benefits over traditional classroom training: the most obvious are the flexibility and the cost savings from not having to travel or spend lots of money on equipment; there are also others that might not be so obvious, such as the fact that it can work from (almost) any location and at any time and that it is self-paced, so that students can take their time and absorb all the necessary knowledge before moving on. Moreover, professors of the highest caliber can share information much more easily.
Communication technologies are generally categorized as asynchronous or synchronous. The mechatronic lab described in this paper is a mix of these two communication technologies. On one hand, we have asynchronous activities, where participants may be engaged in the pursuit of acquiring knowledge and skills without being dependent on the simultaneous involvement of other participants. On the other hand, students may also benefit from synchronous activities: several participants are logged on at the same time and communicate directly with each other, sharing the same application. Such activities involve the exchange of ideas and information with one or more participants during the same period of time. Brief history of e-learning One of the first contacts with e-learning took place in 1728. An advertisement by Caleb Phillipps, “Teacher of the New Method of Short Hand”, was published in the Boston Gazette, suggesting that "Persons in the Country desirous to Learn this Art, may by having the several Lessons sent weekly to them, be as perfectly instructed as those that live in Boston." At the beginning of the 1960s the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign developed the PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations) [22] system, which was oriented towards the delivery of managed course content [12] over the Internet. It is easy to notice that nowadays the same idea brings life to the newly developed e-learning applications [15] and platforms. If in the late 70s microcomputers were already used at the University of Michigan (Educational Technology [6] article by Karl Zinn) – favouring mainly the work with word processing, extending laboratory experience, simulation, games, tutorial uses and building skills in computing, in 1980 a K-12 learning management system put an emphasis on reading, spelling and numeracy, the software being upgraded in 1997 to the SuccessMaker version 5.5 [23]. Virtual learning environments [16] have become a “fashion” since 1990, when they encountered a signifiant growth, mainly due to the advent of the Internet. After 2000 there was a “bum” of applications in the software industry. Some of them were: CAT1 (Computer Assessment and Tutorial) [24] released by Technological Fluency Institute - 2001; Moodle [25], ATutor [26] – 2002; WebCT [27] – 2003; Sakai Project [28] – 2004; VirtualOnDemand [29] – 2005; Scolastance's platform [30] - 2006; Campus VirtualOnline (CVO) [31] – 2007 [32]. II.
E-LEARNING vs. E-TEACHING
Every time one confronts to learning a new concept and has to get accustomed to new information, images and applications especially make this process easier and more pleasant. Nowadays talking about e-learning brings no major novelty in hearing about this domain, but in improvements which have been made to create and develop an appropriate medium to transmit the new information – e-teaching – to the students, who are going to receive and use this material to learn and perfect their knowledge, about a certain subject, offering them a great help mainly in working by applying the newly acquired information – e-learning. Although nothing seems to compare to the traditional system of education, e-learning has both advantages [9] and disadvantages. Among the disadvantages are the longer time spent in front of a computer, which may affect one’s sight faster as usual favoring the wear of glasses at early ages on one hand, whereas, on the other hand it drastically reduces socialization and face to face discussions among people, teenagers getting accustomed and integrating in the virtual world which might be used as a great manipulation tool. Furthermore, even if e-learning also offers the possibility to videoconference (real time class teaching and interacting with students), it is not the same with communicating with a person face-to-face or collaborating directly – as one does in real world - to other students.
The concept of blended learning Blended learning represents primarily the transition from traditional learning (teacher centered) to modern learning – electronic learning (learner centered) techniques. In e-learning the teacher is only a facilitator, the teacher-student interaction occurring less than in a traditional classroom. Furthermore, learning is largely self motivated, and the student bearing more responsibility to manage time and complete tasks within the given time frame [11]. One major aspect is that learners are not identical: they do not have the same capacity to acquire new information nor the same speed and self-discipline as other learners of similar age do. Some of them may not be able to comprehend the given information without further explanation from a teacher. E-learning, at the stage it is today, may not be able to entirely replace the traditional classroom, but only to provide a supporting tool in helping the learners memorize and become accustomed to the new topics faster, by the use of interactive lessons, which tend to be more like computer games they all enjoy - with lots of task applications and practical issues presented as colourful and vivid as possible. The blended e-learning model is based on mixing collaborative learning [14], problem-based learning (PBL) and independent learning. Face-to-face environment and online learning are combined through the learning management system (LMS) [8] – also referred to as adaptive hypermedia [5]. Adaptive hypermedia is supporting learning and testing and also introduces new constructive (learners and instructors are guided in conducting, managing and encouraging personalized learning activities through collaborative learning [7]) and cognitive (concerned especially with the changes in a student’s understanding that results from learning [7]) elements to education. In addition, it promotes students’ motivation by supporting collaborative and project-oriented activities, as well as establishing learning as an active and interactive process [3]. An architecture for adaptive Web-based systems [13] is illustrated in Figure 1. The different system components are equipped with facilities to communicate with the other components in terms of service invocations. Bridges are used in accordance with the UPML (Unified-Solving Method development Language) framework connector definition [18], in order to specify mappings between the different model services within the architecture. Ontology is used to define and unify the system's terminology and properties to describe the knowledge of each system service. Each service can be specified by means of a specific ontology, and, in this way, a common ground for knowledge sharing, exploitation and interoperability among the services is provided. Thus, a highly modularized and flexible architecture is obtained [17].
Figure 1. Semantic Web-based Adaptive Hypermedia Architecture
III.
APPLICATION
The purpose of this application is to develop a collaborative system of e-laboratories in which one may use common resources that are scattered between laboratories, using techniques of augmented reality. Results obtained can be generalized for any collaborative system of e-laboratories. The hardware subsystem of such a distributed multi-robot environment is composed by one robot, an AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) and a milling machine (MM) (or other FMS components available in the mechatronic labs), communication interfaces, data acquisition controllers, one server (PC) for every lab and one video camera (VC) for every lab - figure 2.a.
Robot
VC
VC PC
MM
PC INTERNET PC
VC
MM AG V a
Robot
ML
AGV b
Robot AGV c
Figure 2. The architecture (a) and the virtual layout (b, c) of the system
According to this architecture, the whole system can be seen as a multi-camera environment, but it is more complex. The software architecture is based on a complex distributed application running on three servers, which offers access to the people interested in robot manipulation for studying different methods of cooperation between robots or for learning mechatronic subjects. The software technologies are based on Java. A specific protocol over TCP/IP will be designed for communication between the three servers. A difficult task is the development of such a protocol to support plug in of new labs to the kernel in order to create a network of labs. Development of the collaborative network from e-laboratories will permit the realization of a scattered flexible cell, structured from an AGV belonging to the first lab, which brings the virtual piece further taken by a robot in a laboratory belonging to the second lab and placed on a milling machine in a laboratory belonging to the third lab, where it is virtually processed and then taken again by the robot and brought out of the system by the AGV. The virtual layout of the system is presented in figures 2.b, 2.c. Using augmented reality, virtual reality from two of the laboratories is superposed over materialized effective reality in the third laboratory. Therefore, a command given by a user to one of the robots is reflected in real-time in augmented reality to the other users. IV.
CONCLUSIONS
There is a strong need for identifying suitable strategies for effective e-Learning implementation and we have provided an e-learning application capable of offering students great help in getting accustomed to remote robot manipulation via Internet. The proposed system helps students perform practice experiments from any location, at any time, in their own learning rhythm and for how much time they need. In addition, this tool can be used to test new control schemes over a variety of physical equipment. E-learning cannot be applied everywhere and for everyone, therefore a survey based on students’ opinion (as a future aspect to be considered) - on which way they feel more comfortable to work and learn: a traditional laboratory or a virtual one - should be taken and, depending on these results, further action in the students’ benefit should be considered. Moreover, by this survey, the students’ level of understanding can be determined before and after using this distance learning model for internet based teleoperation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors were supported by the Faculty of Management and Technological Engineering, and they contributed to this paper with results of their investigations on Robotics & Virtual Reality and advanced computing methodologies according to the research program of the UNESCO Chair in Information Technologies at University of Oradea. BIBLIOGRAPHY [1]
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PhD student, University of Oradea and ENSTA Paris,
[email protected] University of Oradea,
[email protected] ∗∗∗ University of Oradea,
[email protected] ∗∗∗∗ UNESCO Chair in Information Technologie, University of Oradea,
[email protected] ∗∗∗∗∗ UNESCO Chair in Information Technologie, University of Oradea,
[email protected] ∗∗∗∗∗∗ student University Politehnica of Bucharest –FILS,
[email protected] ∗∗
