TeleProd: An Internet based Teleproductics system

Abstract

The recent Internet boom and its new powerful development tools are impelling the appearance of new challenging fields of applications to the global network. One new promising field lays on the remote access, control, setup and monitoring of industrial facilities through a computer’s network such as the Internet. TeleProd is a particular implementation built over a proposed reference architecture, that uses the teleproductics concept applied to the Internet network and its associated technologies. This reference architecture proposes systems where the remote operators connect to virtual reality designed industrial facilities and shop floors using a simple WWW browser. The setup, control, operation and monitoring of the industrial process is accomplished by interacting on a client-server manner with one or several shop floor servers running Microsoft Windows NT. These machines act as bridges between the remote connected clients and the industrial facility itself. This paper describes, in detail, how current Internet development tools can be used for this application, and results from TeleProd, a research project that is focused on the development of virtual laboratories for the teaching of mechanical engineering.