CoderLabs: A cloud-based platform for real-time online labs with user collaboration

In this paper, we describe the architecture of a collaborative and real-time environment for remote experiments. We also introduce a web-based remote lab composer, which allows the interconnection and exchange of data between remote laboratories. The environment is created with web standards as HTML5 such that no plug-in needs to be installed by the user. Users are able to use the remote lab simultaneously and in collaboration. This collaboration between users is made feasible by adopting a message broker. We will discuss how Google Coder is used to develop, change, or create a user interface for a remote experiment and how the labs can be shared in the cloud. Our newest addition to this research consists of a drag and drop lab composer, which allows Lab-developers to use standard widgets, data-visualization tools, and data-ports to compose complex remote labs. A lab-composer engine is developed to automate the coupling of the physical instances and collect the data to be visualized. The principles behind our lab-composer engine are explained in the last part of the paper. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.