Remote training platform for industrial control automation
Antonio Morán, Serafín Alonso, Miguel Angel Prada, Juan Jose Fuertes, José Ramón Rodríguez Ossorio, Manuel Domínguez · IFAC-PapersOnLine · 2024
Industrial automation environments are undergoing profound changes due to the high level of digitization in the industry. This means that teaching methods and software tools need to be updated. Teaching automation and control concepts to students involves the use of many different software tools that are not easily accessible or configurable. In addition, the new teaching methods lead to delocalized and remote teaching. Therefore, this paper proposes the development of a remote access platform that uses pre-configured virtual machines with all the necessary software for teaching industrial automation, control and monitoring concepts. This platform allows students not only to access a real physical system and work remotely with all the software already configured, but also to download the virtual machine to run it on their own computers and easily switch between a connection to the real system and a realistic simulation of it. The platform also allows the management of different hands-on tasks for subjects of Master's degree related to industrial process automation.