This paper presents the most important principles and features of construction and operation of the interuniversity scientific and educational network. This network is created for training of engineers in the field of automation, robotics and mechatronic systems. There were four main components of the distance education realized in the network. 1. Lectures in special disciplines were delivered by the leading professors, special educational materials in the form of electronic resources (in several languages) were used for the lectures. These electronic resources contained many demonstration examples illustrating implementation of the studied theoretical material in practice. 2. The laboratory classes in these disciplines were done with a remote use of the laboratory facilities available to all the network participants. 3. The remote education in the project design is based on the results already received during implementation of real scientific and commercial projects (including for industrial application). These projects were realized during the Russian federal target programs and grants (Russian Scientific Foundation and Russian Foundation for Basic Research). 4. Various production practices related to the laboratory and industrial equipment available in the Universities, which participated in the network, were provided. Also the paper contains certain features of the software and hardware implementation for the remote work with the laboratory and industrial equipment in the network. Several examples are presented of the laboratory work and project design done by the students remotely participating in the network.