Abstract:

The discipline (course) of cloud computing in education often causes difficulties for teachers and students - it is determined by the multidisciplinary approach, which requires data acquisition, transfer, arrangement of data structures, placement of the executable file in a virtual environment, access to the database and a data protection solution. All this creates difficulties in the preparation of course assignments, where an additional challenge is the technical performance, which for pedagogical reasons is not recommended to be replaced by simulations and modelling.

The use of a mobile robot as a data source can be evaluated positively for several reasons. First, the data acquisition process is clearly visible - the obtained sensor readings correlate with intuitively predictable values, because the trajectory of the robot is visible and in most cases the values of the readings can be predicted. Secondly, a data structure is logically formed, where data of different meanings are connected - time stamp, coordinates and readings of sensors (temperature, air quality, water quality, lighting, distance, etc.). Thirdly, the usefulness and application of the solution for environmental monitoring purposes is easily explained.

In this work, it is proposed to develop an environmental monitoring solution, where readings of environmental parameters are obtained on the basis of a self-propelled robot (driving, floating, flying), they are linked to GPS coordinates in an open environment or to a selected coordinate system in closed space, transferred to a remote database ("cloud") and data processing takes place there - in a virtual environment, a map is filled with information about the readings, optimal movement trajectories are calculated, warnings are developed for approaching the edge of the area, and commands are given for controlling the robot.

The offered example of cloud computing provides complex assistance to course instructors and enables students to expand the skills learned in theoretical courses, it is useful for IT, mechatronics, data quality, mathematical statistics, data transmission and signal processing studies and useful for study project courses. The work developed meets the requirements of the competence approach in the modern problem-solving-based higher education system in the technical field.

Keywords:

Cloud computing, IoT, competence approach in education.