Lab@Home: Remote laboratory evolution in the cloud computing era

The Evolution of Cloud Computing, decreases the cost of electronic components, and the sizes of devices, and makes possible the emergence of other models for exploitation of remote laboratories. Indeed, until now, most remote laboratories are made available by accessing equipment or the real instruments installed in a remote laboratory room through computer networks and software and hardware interfaces. Now, it is time to allow students to carry out laboratory work from home by using relatively inexpensive compact measuring instruments. The proposed environment will be based on the concept of Software as Service to allow the student to use software tools from the Cloud to perform the tasks in solo or in collaboration with other partners. This article will show the various components of the environment of a remote laboratory in Electrical Engineering, and results obtained following the implementation of this new concept which adds more flexibility to the existing ones we have investigated so far.