A robotics and computer vision virtual laboratory

Virtual Laboratories are an important component of current and future distance education and research programs. In this article we present the current development status of the Brazilian Robotics and Computer Vision Virtual Laboratory. This virtual laboratory was created in the aim to provide access to a mobile robot to researchers located anywhere in the world, for image processing and robot control and navigation methods testing and validation. The virtual laboratory is based on telepresence methods and the client-server architecture, and runs on any computer connected to the Internet. The work presented here is an important contribution that will help bring together geographically distant research groups and enhance the quality of die work done by researchers with scarce laboratorial resources.