Platform for remote control of scientific equipment and collection of measurement data

Abstract

This thesis describes the design of a platform for the remote control of scientific equipment and collection of measurement data, alongside with an implementation of a running prototype. The platform is a web application composed by a backend with its data storage system and a database, a website, and an application (agent) installed on each instrument for monitoring. The main functions are monitoring of the remote installation’s status and uptime and collection of measurement data. The platform is designed based on state-of-the-art technologies, focusing on expandability and reliability. The data storage subsystem is based on an object store, capable of scaling to extremely large amounts of measurement data. In regard to reliability, it was deemed necessary to take extra precautions to guarantee continuous operation in order to overcome challenges related to infrastructure problems of remote installations, such as weak internet connection or power grid outages. Finally, the software that monitors the instruments themselves is cross-platform expandable with add-ons to maximize the range of equipment it can support. A prototype of the designed platform is developed and experimentally deployed in the remote climate change observatory of Antikythera, in cooperation with the National Observatory of Athens. The platform was tasked with the monitoring and data collection for three instruments and had to deal with the observatories’, at the time of writing, frequent power cuts and unstable internet connection. The experiment was deemed successful, providing the researchers real-time notifications about the station’s status, and dutifully fetching new measurements in near real-time. Closing, some ideas are presented about future work that could expand the platform so it can assume more responsibilities of station management, such as execution of common commands.