Implementation of a Teleoperated Didactic Manufacturing Cell through Internet2 as a Means of Engineering Education

摘要

Not all students are able to use didactic manufacturing cells in order to experience real-life project development, owing to their cost and availability. Given the advances in communication media, such as the Internet2 network, which is designed for education purposes, it is easier for universities that have such manufacturing cells to share their resources. Under this premise, this paper presents the development and results of a case study involving a didactic teleoperated cell and the interaction between the ITESM in Mexico and the ESPE (Escuela Politecnica del Ejercito) in Ecuador, through the Internet2 network. The universities have similar graduate programs for automated systems but only the ITESM (Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey) has a full didactic manufacturing cell: a CNC, a transportation band and an automated storage system. For the aforementioned cell, the software that integrates all the control systems was developed by students of both universities and operated as a server for client software given to the students of the ESPE. Practices and surveys for the students were developed and applied in order to compare the knowledge acquired between the students using the cell directly and the students using the cell via the teleoperated cell. This kind of system helps universities to provide more advanced courses and the subject treated in this paper seeks to support the feasibility of telepresence systems as a mean of education.