Cyber-Physical Labs to enhance engineering training and education

The current market requirements of manufacturing sectors are boosting the development and adoption of digital tools increasingly every day. Training simulation software for automatic systems, process optimization, and system validation are a must-have for all production centers to do faster machine integrations and more rapid prototyping to find advantages over their competitors. The new form of system validation is known as virtual commissioning, which emulates a real industrial environment thanks to computer software, and it provides the user with a safe place to train before dealing with a problem in the real world. This technology represents an opportunity for specialized education where virtual commissioning could be used to equip control and automation laboratories in which students and trainees in automation can test, validate, and debug their control and automation strategies. Thus, the student learns by doing; the technology saves the training center money by not needing costly, industrial machinery to reinforce student understanding. The student’s practice becomes a regular habit. In our global economy, many developing nations whose primary economic activity is production feel these pressures, but their training laboratories are resource-poor and are commonly equipped with improvised homemade systems that do not represent what students will face in the real industrial environment. This article describes the creation process, capabilities, and scope of a set of new virtual commissioning elements within Cyber-Physical Laboratories (CPL). A CPL is a merger of physical laboratories equipped with real industrial controllers and virtual environments to emulate industrial processes which can be used for engineering training in automation, control, and robotics for the purpose of achieving low costs and effective use of laboratories. As in a physical system, in a Cyber-Physical Laboratory, devices are totally connected, all operating in their own spaces, real and virtual, and interacting with each other. This research paper also shows examples of in situ Cyber-Physical Laboratories and their capabilities, scope, usage, and contributions to student training.