Remote Laboratory for Industrial Automation

In this paper we present a remotely accessed experiment on industrial automation. Using this remote access, students may verify the correctness of their previous work and increase the productivity of laboratory classes. The experiment provides a web page for interfacing with a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) which controls an electro-pneumatic process. Students may remotely download the program to the PLC and access to the PLC states and variables remotely, allowing the detection of semantic errors. Moreover a Webcam shows the image of the process which, not being essential, provides a more realistic view of the program correctness. The user has access to the system inputs through a web based Human-Machine Interface (HMI). This paper results from collaboration between a PLC solution provider and the university.