Web-based control of the Rice SPENDULAP: A Web-enabled telemechatronic system

Abstract

The recent development of sophisticated Internet architectures has led to the proliferation of telerobotic operated systems, ranging from education driven, resource sharing robots to life saving, telemedical robots, to risk avoidance robots employed by the military to reduce human peril. Currently, these systems are controlled and maintained via complex software downloaded to the client's computer. The web-architecture presented within this thesis demonstrates advances in telemechatronic control that allows control and analysis of a system by a client-side computer without the necessity of external software. The Rice Spherical Pendulum Apparatus (SPENDULAP) is the mechatronic system utilized by the architecture to show how dynamics and controls experiments can be safely performed and monitored by anybody, anywhere, with a simple computer and internet browser.