A comparison between three different types of labs, namely augmented reality remote labs, virtual labs and handson is carried out. The availability of hands-on labs in engineering and science education that require costly equipment and instruments is restricted for little and limited periods of time for a huge number of students. Solutions to bypass these problems are through the introduction of augmented reality (AR) remote labs and virtual labs. AR remote lab augments the real experiment scene with virtual objects. On the contrary, a virtual lab is a software simulation, which is an imitation of a real experiment represented by a mathematical model. The paper focuses on an empirical study that compares an AR remote lab developed specially for this purpose with its corresponding hand-on and virtual labs.

Abstract-Engineering is an applied science; it makes science come alive through experiments and labs. Students can only gain practical knowledge that goes beyond mere scientific theory in the educational labs. This can be done using three different types of educational labs: Augmented reality labs, Virtual labs and Traditional labs. It is crucial to pre-specify the learning objectives associated with each experiment in order to be able to meet them no matter what the method of delivery is. This paper focuses on an empirical study that compares the three types of labs after specifying the associated learning objectives.

Collaborative working environments for distance education can be considered as a more generic form of contemporary remote labs. To make this revolutionary learning environment possible, we must allow the different users to carry out an experiment simultaneously. In recent times, multi-user environments are successfully applied in many applications such as air traffic control systems, team-oriented military systems, chat-text tools, multi-player games etc. In this investigation, collaborative working environments from theoretical and practical perspectives are considered in order to build an effective collaborative real lab, which allows two students or more to conduct remote experiments at the same time as a team. In order to achieve this goal, we have implemented distributed system architecture, enabling students to obtain an automated help by either a human tutor or a rule-based e-tutor.

Abstract-Many engineering students graduate with insufficient practical experience in many fields although their theoretical knowledge might be deep. One main reason is the lack of available labs. Unfortunately, other solutions such as virtual and remote labs presented by pure graphical visualization for assisting the students to develop their practical skills, cannot completely replace hand-on labs, because they lack reality and try to visualize instruments and experiments graphically. Our research is aimed at checking and proofing the appropriateness of augmented reality (AR) to be used in representing client user-interfaces in remote labs. Students can carry out an engineering experiment represented by real and virtual elements, components and equipment overlaid with virtual objects.

Problem statement: Problem of moving a robot through unknown environment has attracted much attention over past two decades. Such problems have several difficulties and complexities that are unobserved, besides the ambiguity of how this can be achieved since a robot may encounter obstacles of all forms that must be bypassed in an intelligent manner. This research had been aimed to develop a system that was able to detect obstacles in a mobile robot's path using a single camera as only sensory input and to achieve the target point in optimized manner. For this reason, algorithm which took total path length and safety into account was developed. Approach: To control movement of robot from a starting to a target point inside the site where obstacles can obstruct the way of robot, real-time software-specially tailored for this purpose-was necessary to develop. To analyze and to process scene images captured by a (vision) camera, camera was installed at the top over the center of site in a way that it covered whole site through which sufficient image information could be delivered. From sequentially captured images that was manipulated through image processing and computer vision, the system built a representative site model, whose ingredients were gridded squares as a result of quantized spatial plane of site and then it began planning the desired routing path. Results: For building a robot path, less computing effort was necessary because grid information was much easier to deal with than pixels and only a minimum amount of stored data of symbolic site model from current and previous state was necessary. Conclusion: Using a quantized spatial domain, a less computational effort was necessary to control movement of robot with the ability of obstacle detection and avoidance.

This research is mainly concerned with remote labs dedicated to disparate types of scientific and engineering experiments. Educational engineering labs present an essential part in engineering education because they provide practical knowledge for students. Unfortunately, these labs equipped with costly instruments are available for little and limited periods of time for a huge number of students. An approach to circumvent the mentioned problems is by employing virtual and remote labs that assist the students in developing their practical skills, but applying this type of labs leads to the fact that students suffer from the weakness of the reality representation of experiment equipment. Our research is aimed at checking and proofing the appropriateness of augmented reality (AR) to be used in representing client user-interfaces in remote labs. Students can carry out an engineering experiment represented by real and virtual elements, components and equipment overlaid with virtual objects.

Abstract-Engineering labs play a vital role in engineering education, make science come alive, and supply students with better understanding of theories. As a result, they contribute to the improvement of their knowledge and skills. Remote labs not enable sharing of teaching resources such as devices, equipment and instrumentations between universities, but also relax time and space constraints; yet they are considered as a complementary asset to the traditional hands-on labs. This paper is concerned with a two-stage assessment of the engineering remote lab VISIR. In the first stage, the assessment investigated if the students accept to use VISIR in their future lab courses at the Faculty of Engineering at Al-Quds University in Palestine. In the second stage, a deeper analysis will be performed to compare VISIR to hands-on and simulators based on the evaluation criteria: performance, students' retention rate and satisfaction survey.

Abstract-Engineering labs are an essential part in engineering education, since they provide practical knowledge for students, illustrate concepts and principles, and improve technical skills. Remote labs allow devices, equipment, and instrumentations to be shared with other universities. In addition, they relax time and space constraints, and are capable of being adapted to the pace of each student; in the case, there was insufficient time in the laboratory. This paper describes an empirical study, which embeds two stages of assessment. In the first stage, we are concerned with finding out the level of flexibility when applying the engineering remote lab VISIR as a contemporary remote lab technology in the engineering faculty at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem in Palestine, and whether the engineering students will accept such technology to interact with in their future lab courses or not. In the second stage of the assessment study, a more in-depth comparative analysis will be carried out in order to have a categorization of VISIR in the landscape of the engineering labs, such as hands-on and simulations. The three lab approaches will be compared with each other by means of an experimental testing based on assessment criteria that are in accordance with the fundamental course objectives of engineering instructional labs: student's retention rate and satisfaction survey, as well as their performance.