Implementation of a teleoperated didactic manufacturing cell through internet2 as a means of engineering education

Not all students are able to use didactic manufacturing cells in order to experience real-life project development, owing totheir cost and availability. Given the advances in communication media, such as the Internet2 network, which is designedfor education purposes, it is easier for universities that have such manufacturing cells to share their resources. Under thispremise, this paper presents the development and results of a case study involving a didactic teleoperated cell and theinteraction between the ITESM in Mexico and the ESPE (Escuela Polite cnica del Ejercito) in Ecuador, through theInternet2 network. The universities have similar graduate programs for automated systems but only the ITESM (InstitutoTecnolo gico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey) has a full didactic manufacturing cell: a CNC, a transportation bandand an automated storage system. For the aforementioned cell, the software that integrates all the control systems wasdeveloped 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 thestudents using the cell directly and the students using the cell via the teleoperated cell. This kind of system helps universitiesto provide more advanced courses and the subject treated in this paper seeks to support the feasibility of telepresencesystems as a mean of education.