Defining the Critical Factors in the Architectural Design of Remote Laboratories

In the last decade, we have witnessed a significant proliferation of remote laboratories, unconstrained by temporal or geographical considerations, in all fields of engineering education, thanks to the exponential revolution of digital technologies and computers. In response to these needs, this paper provides a literature review on the commonly encountered hardware and software implementation issues nowadays. It provides a generic model for developing and implementing modern remote laboratories suited for a wide spectrum of application categories and for the next-generation educational systems. This paper addresses all the components and stages of the architectural design, outlining the critical factors to be considered in each of them. The overall goal is to provide guidelines for developers, either providers or consumers, and to facilitate remote laboratories development, implementation, and sharing across universities-seamlessly and efficiently.