Abstract:

The lack of adequate laboratory facilities and limited access to hands-on training remain persistent challenges in STEM higher education, particularly in science and engineering laboratory courses. While augmented reality (AR) has been increasingly adopted as an instructional tool, existing implementations remain largely passive, failing to provide real-time interactive control of physical laboratory equipment. This paper proposes an interactive AR-based mobile learning system that enables students to wirelessly interact with and control real physical laboratory equipment through an intuitive mobile application. The proposed system comprises two core components: a Unity-based mobile AR application and a Raspberry Pi device, where the Raspberry Pi functions both as a self-hosted WiFi access point and as a communication gateway to the laboratory equipment. The mobile application provides students with AR-based instructional content, real-time system visualization, and a graphical user interface for directly controlling the physical laboratory equipment. The Raspberry Pi receives control inputs from the mobile application, sends control commands to the connected laboratory device, and relays real-time feedback back to the student — all within a self-contained, infrastructure-free network. A prototype of the system is developed and presented to demonstrate its feasibility for supporting interactive hands-on STEM learning in resource-constrained environments. The paper further discusses the system architecture, implementation considerations, advantages, and challenges, contributing a scalable and accessible model for AR-enabled laboratory education in higher education institutions.

Keywords:

Augmented Reality, STEM Education, Interactive Learning, Remote Laboratory, Hands-on Learning.