VIRTUAL LABORATORY OF INDUSTRIAL SCENARIOS FOR TRAINING IN THE AREAS OF AUTOMATION AND CONTROL

Abstract

Automation is an area that is constantly being updated with the incorporation of new technological developments. These changes require constant training in both the academic and industrial spheres. One of the limitations of academia is the lack of infrastructure that allows the student to conduct trials in an industrial environment since both the type and number of the actuators, sensors and processors are limited to/by the infrastructure of the laboratory. For this reason, the development of a virtual industrial lab is posed where components possess the physical and electrical characteristics of the industry necessary to simulate real behavior. With this development, people in training will be able to connect PLCs to the industrial virtual laboratory by Modbus/TCP communication and program complex automation sequences in real industrial scenarios which have been virtualized. This means they will be able to modify the parameters and the sequences of control without the risk of compromising the safety of the process or personnel involved.