Teaching and learning robotics with Internet teleoperation

Virtual laboratories offer many advantages for the teaching of technological subjects, such as flexibility in time-tables and student access to expensive and limited equipment. However, it is also important to evaluate the acceptability of such laboratories by the students and the effect they have on teaching. In this article, we present the main tool of the virtual laboratory used by the authors in teaching a Robotics subject, and which allows the simulation and tele-operation of a robot arm. The main results of a study on the impact of the virtual laboratory on the students and the teaching-learning process is also described in detail. We would like to thank the Education Sciences Institute and the Office of the Vice-President for Studies and Educational Innovation of the University of Alicante for its economic aids, under the respective projects “Remote virtual laboratories for the practical learning of engineering subjects (2001/02/03)” and “Remote Virtual Laboratory to Carry out Practical Exercises Through the WWW (2001/02)”.