Transcript Remote Laboratory for Industrial Automation

Remote Laboratory for
Industrial Automation
Rui Delgado, Gustavo Santos
Carlos Cardeira, J. R. C. Pinto, Rui Loureiro
Otto Leichsenring
IST – GOM - INFOCONTROL
Goals
• Remotely accessed laboratory for
industrial automation
• Improve laboratories sessions productivity
• Compromise between a real lab and a
virtual lab
Real, Remote and Virtual Labs
• Real labs
– There’s nothing like a real experiment
– They’re very close to reality
But …
- They’re limited to timetables
- Require a presence of a tutor or a technician
availability
Real, Remote and Virtual Labs
• Remote labs – provide access to real
experiments remotely
– Not limited by timetables
– They’re (very) close to reality
But …
- Physical experiments access is mutual exclusive
- They’re affected by network performance and
reliability
- Bottlenecks near the deadlines limit the availability of
remote labs
Real, Remote and Virtual Labs
• Virtual labs – Completely virtual
–
–
–
–
Not limited by timetables
No bottlenecks near the deadlines
Access is not mutually exclusive
They aren’t affected by network performance and
reliability
But …
- No feeling of reality
- Limited by programmed possibilities
Real, Remote and Virtual Labs
• All types of labs have advantages and
drawbacks (otherwise only one type would
exist)
• Virtual Labs : for training and mastering
• Remote Labs : for testing
• Real Labs : for doing it !
Industrial Automation Remote Lab
Industrial Automation Remote Lab
No specific software:
• Connection to Lab PLC is made by TCP/IP
using the manufacturer’s programming
environment
• Access to the webcam image is made with
a normal videoconferencing software
• The human-machine interface is made by
a normal browser
Edit, Compile, Download, Debug
Webconnect - HMI
• PDP keys are embedded in the HTML
code, being used for addressing PLC data.
– %%PDP,,I16,B% addressing one input “I16”
and format is binary.
– %%PDP,,R300,F% addressing the register
300, format is in floating point.
– %%PDP,,DB10.20,d% addressing Data Block
10, element 20, format is decimal.
Web Interfaces
Web Interfaces
Remote Camera
Integration from Web to physical
hardware
What you get:
Results
• Students have a demo version of the PLC
•
•
software that allows them to check for syntax
errors
Students may use the remote lab to check for
semantic errors and make online debug
Students go to the lab session for the real
laboratory to make real contact with the
equipment
Perspectives
• Security issues
• An unique front end
• A PLC simulator towards a virtual lab
• Convince more and more PLC
manufacturers to create remote labs on
their facilities