A Virtual Laboratory for Space Systems Engineering Experiments

Abstract Aerospace engineering experiments are made accessible via internet for education purposes within a team of universities in Europe and Amerika. The students at the partner institutes perform by telematic techniques at their home university the experiments with the distributed, remote hardware. This paper presents an overview of this virtual laboratory and discusses two such exemplary experiments: control of a swinging structure and tele-operations of a planetary rover. Special emphasis is placed on the realisation of the remote control via internet and on modelling, identification and control aspects of the experiment, motivated by a space systems design context.