The challenge of specimen handling in remote laboratories for Engineering Education

The robot controlled specimen handling for experiments in the field of material characterization for forming technology is presented. The testing cell consists of testing machines, an industrial robot, and other necessary components for the automation and conduction of experiments. First, a methodology is introduced how the key sequence of the robot tasks are identified, planned, and simulated. Afterwards, the design process of the testing cell is described. Finally, the implementation of the methodology and the integration of the robot tasks in a remote laboratory are presented.