Hands-on laboratory experience via remote control: Jet thrust laboratory

This paper describes the development of a remote-controlled jet thrust laboratory for illustrating the fundamentals of compressible fluid mechanics as part of an undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum. The laboratory is the first in a series to be developed jointly by faculty at Rutgers University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne. The sharing of resources significantly reduces the per institution development and maintenance costs, while making available a wide array of 'hands-on' laboratory experiences to students. Problems associated with implementing remote-controlled experiments, including control, visualization, data acquisition, student preparation, client-side compatibility, are discussed and workable solutions presented. Finally evaluation results of the educational outcomes of the remote-controlled laboratory compared against a control group are presented.