Received: 29 November 2017

DOI: 10.1002/cae.21922
| Accepted: 26 January 2018

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Combining local and remote laboratories for the interactive

learning of industrial automation

Armando Cordeiro1 | Vitor Fernão Pires2,3 | Daniel Foito2

1 ISEL, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa,

Lisboa, Portugal
2 ESTSetúbal-Instituto Politécnico Setúbal/
DEE, Setúbal, Portugal
3 INESC-ID Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
Correspondence
Armando Cordeiro, Electrical Engineering
Department, Energy and Automation, ISEL
− Instituto Superior de Engenharia de
Lisboa − IPL, Rua Conselheiro Emídio
Navarro 1, 1959–007 Lisboa, Portugal.
Email: acordeiro@deea.isel.ipl.pt
Funding information
FCT − Fundação para a Ciência e a
Tecnologia, Grant number: UID/CEC/
50021/2013
Abstract
This study presents an educational project for the interactive learning of Industrial
Automation. The objective of this project is to allow Bachelor's and Master's students
of Electrical Engineering of the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa (ISEL-
IPL) to learn theoretical and practical fundamentals of Industrial Automation through
local and remote laboratory experiments. The proposed pedagogical activities,
together with the flexibility of the solution adopted for the laboratory experiments,
allow students to acquire advanced knowledge regarding Programmable Logic
Controller (PLC) programming languages, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisi-
tion (SCADA) applications and industrial communication networks, among other
aspects. The main benefits of this educational project are the motivation to engage in
problem solving, developing mental strategies based on new hypotheses, step-by-step
knowledge construction, and the possibility to interact and change, locally or
remotely, the developed programs. Additionally, the adopted laboratory architecture
is based on industrial hardware and software, like those found in real applications.

KEYWORDS
educational project, fieldbus devices, industrial automation, remote laboratories, SCADA applications

1 | INTRODUCTION In terms of educational purposes, these technologies have

In recent decades, new technological advances have intro-
duced major changes in modern society. These advances are
often the result of a joint effort between multidisciplinary
research teams, companies and academia. Frequently, such
advances are experimentally introduced in some industrial
processes and progressively extended to other areas of
activity when improved results are achieved. The main
objective is normally to produce better products at lower
costs, increase company profits, and therefore economic
benefits for society. Alternatively, these products, especially
programmable electronic devices, are currently responsible
for new business opportunities, improved entertainment, and
communication between people, travel convenience,
improved access to information at anytime and anywhere,
new educational solutions, and so on [13,15].
Comput Appl Eng Educ. 2018;26:675–687.
brought new opportunities and challenges for school
communities mainly related to engineering. The main
challenge for schools and professors is to introduce courses
in innovative areas with updated content and modern
laboratories without losing the basic mathematical and
physical concepts that support knowledge. For students, it
is an excellent opportunity to access theoretical content and
laboratory experiments inside and outside campus. Several
studies dedicated to remote laboratories and web-based
educational tools have been presented in recent years to
support this concept [5,9,10,12,14,16,19,20]. In general, such
tools and solutions promote new teaching methodologies for
enhancing the experience of learning, as well as expanding
educational opportunities for a larger number of students.
Another advantage over traditional laboratories are the safety
measures, maintenance problems (e.g., concerning dangerous
wileyonlinelibrary.com/cae © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. | 675
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| CORDEIRO
voltages/currents or mechanical parts in rotation), and time/
space constraints.
It is unquestionable that the availability of didactic remote
experimental laboratories with interactive equipment is very
convenient for technical schools, especially in engineering
schools, such as electrical and mechanical engineering.
Nevertheless, regardless of the aforementioned advantages,
these tools and solutions cannot replace completely tradi-
tional laboratories and classrooms. It is necessary to
understand that certain personal experiences shared in the
classroom or laboratory are also important to consolidate
knowledge regarding certain subjects. For example, the
experience of handling and commissioning didactic (and
sometimes industrial) equipment in laboratories is an
important training aspect for engineers and cannot be
acquired remotely.
One of the areas that is considered very important for
future professionals in Electrical Engineering is Industrial
Automation. However, in order to learn this specialization,
essential laboratory practice is required. Due to this,
several laboratory tools have been proposed in the
literature. Examples, associated with PLC (Programmable
Logic Controller) programming and SCADA (Supervisory
Control and Data Acquisition) can be found in refer-
ences [1–4,6–8,11,17,18,21,22]. Through the implementa-
tion of these educational tools, the importance of the
development of laboratories for Industrial Automation in
the student learning process was established.
It is noteworthy that several companies, such as
Siemens, ABB, and Omron, also have didactic tools that
are highly useful for teaching Industrial Automation (and
other areas). Such tools are normally used in their training
centers around the world to promote products and train
employees and partners. Those tools allow the simulation of
a PLC and a SCADA system connected to a specific
process, which is normally composed of a specific data
acquisition board connected to a computer running a
simulation program [23,24]. Although very valuable, those
tools present some disadvantages from the point of view of
educational institutions. One usual disadvantage is the
relation between cost and benefit. They are normally quite
expensive and can only be used to simulate a very limited
number of processes. Additional simulation processes
require more financial resources, which are severely limited
in most institutions. This is important for educational
purposes since students tend to copy projects and programs
from other students. This does not happen when simulation
processes are different in every semester. Another disad-
vantage is the imposed limitation to operate with a
simulation process based on a computer program that
uses different languages from those referred in the
IEC61131-3. In this situation, students tend to lose the
focus in the practice of programming PLCs because they
ET AL.
must learn to program in other languages that are not
compatible with PLCs.
This study presents an educational project centered on the
design of appealing and modern laboratory experiments for
the interactive learning of Industrial Automation. This project
was developed in the Electrical Engineering Department at
the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa (ISEL) within
the framework of the importance that Industrial Automation
plays in today's world and of their responsibility to train
students in this area. It is important to remark that this
educational project was designed for students pursuing their
bachelor's or master's degrees and for industry professionals
attending continuous formation or specialization courses.
This educational project takes into account the simultaneous
involvement of bachelor's and master's students, promoting
collaboration and healthy competition between them. This
interaction between students tends to increase creativity,
responsibility, and friendship, which are excellent reasons to
develop excellent work. This is also part of a strategy adopted
to prevent dropping out of the courses, since students feel
more support from colleagues.
The organization of this study is given as follows.
Section 2 describes the educational project. Section 3
presents the infrastructure concerning the local and remote
access to the automation laboratory. An example of an
educational experiment developed in the laboratory is
presented in section 4. Section 5 is dedicated to a brief
evaluation of the achieved results. The conclusions are
presented in section 6.
2 | EDUCATIONAL PROJECT
DESCRIPTION
This educational project was designed for 3rd-year bachelor's
students of Electrical Engineering (courses of Automation)
and 2nd-year master's students of Electrical Engineering
(course of industrial communication networks and SCADA).
Despite different educational goals set for bachelor's and
master's students, this project was designed to achieve several
common purposes, namely:
1. Motivate students for the area of Industrial Automation,
improving the ability to solve Automation problems;
2. Modernize the Automation laboratory with some of the
most up-to-date equipment and software;
3. Create new interactive laboratory experiments that can be
executed locally or remotely by students, allowing them to
finish and test them after classes;
4. Validate the theoretical knowledge acquired in the
classroom when applied to real problems and situations;
5. Promote the interaction between students of different
courses to share experiences and knowledge.
CORDEIRO ET AL.
This project allows us to take advantage of the experience
acquired by master's students in order to motivate bachelor's
students to solve automation problems using interactive tools
and experiments. The goal is to create common laboratory
experiments to test the knowledge acquired by each course.
For bachelor's students, these interactive experiments are
dedicated to:
1. Improving the learning of abstract concepts involving the
operation of electrical, electronic, and programmable
electronic devices, such as sensors and actuators, through
new experiments;
2. Understanding the operation of a PLC and I/O digital and
analogue interfaces;
3. Improve the students’ programming skills concerning the
IEC61131-3 languages.
For master's students, these experiments are dedicated to:
1. Understanding the operation of some of the most common
industrial communication networks;
2. Understand the structure of SCADA systems and the high-
level languages normally adopted.
The idea behind these experiments is based on a dual
concept: use a PLC to control a specific process, while
simultaneously using another to implement the simulation of
the process. In this context, master's students develop
“process simulators” based on PLC programming and
SCADA systems. These process simulators must simulate a
real-time application in a specific PLC. SCADA application
will help to confirm the desired operation, first by master's
students and later by bachelor's students. Bachelor's students
must program another PLC (different PLC model) to act as a
controller for such process simulators, called the “process
controllers.” To ensure the operation of these two systems
together, bachelor's students must also connect their I/O
interfaces as part of their training. These experiments allow
master's students to apply their theoretical knowledge in
advanced PLC programming, communication networks, and
SCADA systems. The developed systems must be as
interactive as possible. Alternatively, these experiments
also motivate bachelor's students to create programs for
specific processes, which they can interact and modify at
school or at home.
This educational project requires effective planning of
all the pedagogical activities to be undertaken for both
bachelor's and master's courses from professors. In the
proposed project, interactive learning is achieved through
some activities that include developing mental strategies
based on new hypotheses, step-by-step knowledge con-
struction, and experimentation. The following pedagogical
activities are developed for bachelor's students:
| 677
Activity 1: Preparation—Theoretical classes with exercises
and queries (duration: 20 hr). Some theoretical classes are
held in the laboratory to have contact with some devices.
Summary:
 Basic concepts of industrial automation, namely, schematic
rules and graphic symbols for control and power diagrams
using electrical wires;
 Basic concepts of I/O interfaces and programming PLCs
according with the IEC61131-3 languages;
 Theoretical exercises;
 Presentation of the PLC programming software to be used
in the laboratory classes and perform some application
examples;
 Presentation of a process simulator as example of the
experiments that bachelor's students must control. The
professor demonstrates how to communicate remotely with
a PLC and the results in a SCADA layout. A full
description of all details is provided in proper documents,
including images of the SCADA layouts. All the docu-
ments are available in Moodle.
Activity 2: Execution—Practical experiments in the labora-
tory (duration: 20 h). Summary:
 Team creation (two students per group);
 Assign one workstation per group. Each workstation has
available two PLCs and a computer with the PLC
programming software. In one PLC will be developed the
process controller and the other will run the process simulator;
 Creation of the first PLC program in the controller;
 Distribution of a working document for each group. This
document guides the students during the experiment and
has details of a specific process simulator (previously
created by master's students), which must be controlled
following some criteria defined by professors. Other
aspects of control are chosen arbitrarily by students,
providing creative freedom. This document includes a list
of input and output variables used in the simulator;
 Establish the I/O connections between both PLCs (the
process simulator and controller). This task is also made by
students as part of training;
 Development of programs for the controllers according to
the desired operability. Professors play the role of
mediators in this learning process, supervising the effective
collaborative work during this experiment;
 Almost at the end of this activity, a runtime version of the
SCADA programs (developed previously by master's
students) is also provided to bachelor's students. These
programs are in accordance with the process simulator
distributed for each group and allow students to test the
operability of the developed programs for the process
controllers. Usually, several corrections are necessary;
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| CORDEIRO
 Taking advantage of the installed equipment in the
laboratory, students can interact and modify the programs
remotely. Professors encourage students to complete some
parts of the program at home and report the results in the
next class;
 During the laboratory classes the professor records the
behavior, conflicts, events, doubts, and suggestions
expressed by students. This record will help to improve
future experiments.
Activity 3: Discussion—Presentation and analysis of the
developed PLC programs (duration: 4 hr). Summary:
 Each group must present the developed solution for the
class, explaining details, and results achieved;
 Brief discussion of the obtained results. This discussion
involves professors and students from all groups. Master's
students involved in this process are encouraged to
participate;
 Proposals to improve the developed solutions can be
presented.
Activity 4: Evaluation—Analysis and evaluation of the
results (duration: 4 hr). Summary:
 A survey of this educational project is performed at the end
of the semester before the evaluation of students. The
results obtained so far are presented in Section 5;
 Each group must generate a final report based on the
achieved results.
The following pedagogical activities are proposed for
master's students to achieve different educational goals:
Activity 1: Preparation—Theoretical classes for the theory of
fieldbus and SCADA systems with exercises and queries
(duration: 15 hr). Summary:
 Principles of communication theory (communication
techniques, codification, modulations, topologies, data
rates, media access methods, and so on);
 Commonly used fieldbus standards (physical layer
standard, media supported, maximum nodes, determin-
istic, intrinsically safe, maximum segment length, and
so on);
 Describe the network processes that use protocols and how
they utilize them;
 Identify the functions of protocols and protocol stacks;
 Map specific protocols to the appropriate OSI layer;
 Introduction to SCADA systems, namely, software and
hardware resources, such as databases, alarms, networking,
OPC (OLE for Process Control) client and server, and
layout design, among other aspects;
 Theoretical exercises.
ET AL.
Activity 2: Execution—Practical experiments in the labora-
tory (duration: 15 hr). Summary:
 Team creation (two students per group);
 Assign one workstation per group. Each workstation has
available one PLC and a computer with several software
programs: The PLC programming software, the SCADA
software and the OPC software;
 Introduction to the SCADA software. Creation of the first
SCADA layout connected to the PLC through the OPC
server software;
 Distribution of a working document for each group. This
document guides the master's students during the develop-
ment of the process simulator;
 Development of programs for the process simulators
according to the desired operability. Students must define
the necessary I/O variables;
 Development of the SCADA layouts and establish
connection with the PLC where the process simulator is
running. This connection must be done according to the
defined I/O variables;
 All the experiments must be tested remotely to assure the
desired operability;
 During the laboratory classes, the professor records the
behavior, conflicts, events, doubts, and suggestions
expressed by students. This record will help to improve
future experiments.
For master's students, the methods for discussion and
evaluation are quite similar to those proposed for bachelor's
students and are not described here. Professors must ensure
that master's students produce good reports because they will
be used as a reference by bachelor's students to create their
own PLC programs.
It is also necessary to provide VPN software and
temporary passwords to the students, allowing for remote
access via the Internet (or Ethernet inside the campus) to
PLCs and the OPC server. Programming the PLCs remotely
creates some security issues that can be solved with the use of
firewall devices and additional security passwords. More
details of these devices will be given in the next sections.
This interaction between bachelor's and master's students
aims to increase the motivation to learn more about Industrial
Automation and develop good projects and reports. On this
basis, master's students feel motivated to develop creative
simulators without errors, since they know that their
colleagues will test them in the near future. In addition,
there is always a certain pride in the use of a product or system
developed by them (and that is being used by someone),
instead of just being stored somewhere without any use.
Alternatively, bachelor's students usually like to demonstrate
to professors and colleagues that they have the skills to deal
with the proposed simulation process successfully. Because
CORDEIRO ET AL.
all bachelor's student groups have different simulation
processes, it is excellent to see the interest and curiosity
they demonstrate by the simulation processes of other
bachelor's student groups. It is common during the practical
classes to observe students from different groups discussing
and suggesting modifications in the work of their colleagues.
From the pedagogical point of view, this could be very
interesting.
3 | PROPOSED LABORATORY
INFRASTRUCTURE
This section presents the solutions designed for both local and
remote access to the automation laboratory. As mentioned
before, this educational project covers master's and bachelor's
courses. Although the project is common, it was necessary to
create an architecture to accommodate different solutions
since the goals are not the same. The master's course is more
oriented to the development of SCADA systems and the
bachelor's course is more oriented to programming PLCs.
In order to implement the proposed strategy, it was
required to develop a remote and local access to the laboratory
through the use of different PLCs with communication
interfaces. Each process is composed by a PLC running as a
simulator and another PLC running as a controller (as
described in the previous section). This approach is different
from the classical solution where a PLC is connected to an
embedded simulator running a specific process in a computer
program. This PLC to PLC approach avoids the acquisition of
extra equipment, which is generally quite expensive.
Alternatively, this strategy maintains the focus of students
in the PLCs, their interfaces, physical connections, and
programming languages.
FIGURE 1 Solution to programming PLCs (running the process simulators) and connect applications to the SCADA in the laboratory
| 679
This type of structure allows us to change anytime the
simulation process due to the capability to modify the PLC
programs. To implement a process simulator in a PLC, there
are two possibilities: programming directly the PLC or
through a remote connection. Figure 1 shows the adopted
architecture to program a process simulator in the automation
laboratory. Using the presented architecture, master's students
can program the PLCs running the process simulators and
then the SCADA layouts that will provide supervisory
functions for such simulators. Master's students program
these PLCs (TSX 57302 CPUs [25]) according with the
desired operability using the PL7 Junior software [26]
(Schneider-Electric). After this programming activity, mas-
ter's students create specific layouts for each process
simulator (which will be controlled by bachelor students)
and connect them with the respective PLC using the SCADA
solution proposed. These layouts help to visualize the
behavior of the process simulator. The SCADA solution is
based on two different software applications, the Proficy
iFix32 operating as the OPC client and the TopServer
Toolbox operating as the OPC server.
The iFix32 software is used to design the layouts and
work as a HMI (Human Machine Interface), managing
database variables, reporting and managing alarms, recording
historic data, and so on. The TopServer Toolbox software
provides communication drivers for several devices and is
very useful for academic purposes, allowing to communicate
with different devices at the same time. In this software, the IP
addresses of all PLCs (operating as simulators) and the I/O
variables that users want to read or write must be defined. All
the PLCs used as process simulators have an ETY110
interface module available [27], allowing access over the
Ethernet. This software is run on a single computer of the
automation laboratory and is responsible for collecting data
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| CORDEIRO
from all TSX CPUs (using the Modbus TCP protocol),
making it available to all OPC clients.
SCADA systems are widely used in industry and there are
many publications available on this subject, for example,
references [3,8,17]. Figure 2 illustrates details of the
connection between the SCADA solution (using two software
applications) and one PLC running the process simulator #1.
To operate correctly, master's students must first create all the
tags with the respective PLCs in the Topserver software. All
the connections can be tested immediately to identify
problems in the communication drivers or misconnections.
Master's students must then create a database with all the I/O
variables for each individual layout in the iFix32 software.
The final step in this process is to connect the database (of the
iFix32 software) with existing tags in the Topserver software
using a remote LAN connection. All these connections (PLCs
and PCs) require fixed IP addresses. Both software
applications (iFix32 [28] and Topserver [29]) could have
be installed on same machine, but that solution would make
remote access more difficult.
This architecture uses the Ethernet network of the campus
as a way to access to the devices locally or remotely. Although
this network does not have the same characteristics as a
dedicated Industrial Ethernet fieldbus network (e.g., Profinet,
EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT, and so on), it serves the purpose
FIGURE 2 Details of SCADA applications used in the automation laboratory by master's students for local access
ET AL.
perfectly for this educational project. In this type of solution,
even for academic purposes, it should be considered that
connecting devices to an open network (via Ethernet in this
case) always entails the risk of unauthorized access to the
network or devices. It is usually necessary to deactivate
unused communication channels (e.g., SNMP, FTP, BootP,
and so on) and setting passwords and allowed IP addresses to
prevent third parties from unauthorized access to controllers.
It is also recommended not to use the controllers in safety
critical applications unless using additional security devices.
These additional protective measures must be done according
to the IT security requirements.
Figures 3 and 4 shows the adopted solutions to program
the process controllers. This task is achieved by bachelor's
students. The I/O connection between process controllers and
simulators can be seen in these figures. There are two
possibilities for bachelor's students to program the con-
trollers: by direct connection in the laboratory (Figure 3) or
through remote connection where they can download and test
the PLC programs without a direct connection to the PLC
(Figure 4). Note that the solution presented in Figure 4 can be
used to program the PLC inside or outside the laboratory. The
software to program the controllers (ILC 131 ETH CPU [30])
is the PC Worx [31] (from Phoenix Contact), which uses the
TCP/IP protocol via the Ethernet interface of the PC.
CORDEIRO ET AL.
| 681

The connection over the Ethernet is protected through a

bidirectional firewall/NAT (Network Address Translation)
Router from Phoenix Contact (mGuard device [32]). In this
firewall router, the allowed IP addresses that can remotely
access the controllers must be defined. This device is
connected to a switch device in order to have all devices
available in the network. To increase safety, the PC Worx
software allows us to create an additional password for each
PLC, thereby avoiding unauthorized access.
Bachelor's students can also access the OPC server
software (Topserver) via the supervisory software (iFix32)
inside or outside the laboratory. As mentioned previously,
these two applications are the SCADA solution. The
SCADA helps students to understand the real effect on the
process simulators due to the modifications implemented
in the process controllers. Figure 5 illustrates the access to
the OPC server using the iFix32 software, which must be
installed on students’ PCs, as described earlier in Figure 1.
Note that the OPC server communicates only with process
simulators although using the same network infrastructure.
One of the advantages of using this architecture is that it
can also be used outside the campus, which is very useful for
educational purposes. Thus, through the VPN software (and
respective temporary keys) provided to students, it is also
possible to access from home, allowing students to download,
modify, and debug online using the PC Worx software. The
SCADA solution is in this case is also very useful for
interaction, otherwise it would be very difficult to confirm the
results. An overview of this architecture can be seen in
Figure 6, where students with an access point to the internet
can communicate with the OPC server and PLCs. In this case,
each group only has access to the specific process controller
used in the automation laboratory.
4 | LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS
FIGURE 4 Solution to program the PLC (process controller)
outside the automation laboratory. This task is completed by
bachelor's students
software will be used by master's students to create a complete
process simulator, as earlier described. Figure 7 presents a print
screen of the supervisory software (Proficy Ifix32) during the
design of layouts of a process simulator. In this example, it is
possible to see a water treatment system composed of tanks,
valves, sensors, mixers, and pumps used to administrate the
dosage of aluminium sulfate. This is a typical layout example
that master's students develop along with the PLC program for
the process simulator. Note that these layouts (a run-time
version) will be used by bachelor's students to test the correct
operation of the process controllers. Master's students must
create these layouts to be as interactive as possible, allowing
access to configuration screens to adjust process variables, such
as mixing times, tank volume, tank levels, and other variables.
Figure 8 shows the OPC server software (TopServer
Toolbox) where master's students must first select the devices
(in this case, the PLC where the process simulator is running)
and the communication drivers. Next, each group must create
their own tag variables according with the specific memory
map used in the PLC of the process simulator. All connections
can be tested in a quick client window. Because the devices

This section presents a general description of one example

created in the laboratory for the interactive learning of industrial
automation. The OPC client and server are first described, which
are the base of the SCADA solution. The PLC and its
programming software are then discussed. This hardware and

FIGURE 3 Solution to program the PLC (process controller)

directly in the automation laboratory. This task is completed by FIGURE 5 Solution to program the process controller and access
bachelor's students the OPC server remotely
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| CORDEIRO
FIGURE 6 General overview of the architecture adopted to access the experiments of the Automation Laboratory outside the campus
are identical, the master's students must be sure that data
comes from the intended device.
Figure 9 shows a photograph of a PLC (TSX 57302) and
the respective software (PL7 Junior) (see Figure 10) from
Schneider Electric used by master's students to program the
process simulators. The PLCs used for this purpose are placed
inside an electric panel that can be moved inside the laboratory
for different experiments (see Figures 13 (2) and (3)).
The next description of hardware and software is related to
the design of the process controller. These elements are used by
bachelor's students in laboratory experiments. Figure 11 shows
the starter kit ILC 131 ETH from Phoenix Contact used by
bachelor's students. This ILC PLC will control the process that
is simulated in the TSX PLC presented in Figure 9. To program
such ILC PLCs, PC Worx software is used. A print screen of
this software is presented in Figure 12. Because the adopted
process controllers have Ethernet interfaces and can be
accessed remotely, bachelor's students must learn how to
configure such devices (e.g., DNS Name, IP address, Subnet
Mask, Gateway, and so on). All these activities should be
supervised by professors during the classes.
A photograph showing the equipment used in this example
can be seen in Figure 13. In this figure, it is possible to see the
iFix32 software (1), the PLC where the process simulator (2)
from Schneider-Electric is implemented, one of the mobile
electric panels used in the laboratory for several experiments
(3), which have inside the PLC running the process simulator,
ET AL.
the starterkit ILC131ETH PLC (4) from Phoenix Contact,
which operates as the process controller, and finally, the
programming software for the PLC of Phoenix Contact (5)
running on the student PC. The I/O connections between the
TSX PLC and the ILC PLC can also be seen in this figure.
5 | EVALUATION OF THIS
EDUCATIONAL PROJECT
This educational project started in 2014, covering the
automation courses of the bachelor's degree and the industrial
communication networks and SCADA courses of the master's
degree in Electrical Engineering. These courses are composed
of theoretical and laboratorial experiments, which can be
combined with remote access. Between the summer semesters
of 2014 and 2016 (six semesters), a total of 42 master's students
and 68 bachelor's students have been involved in this
educational project. At the end of each semester, the professors
make a satisfaction survey with students regarding several
scientific/technical and pedagogical aspects. The obtained
results covering these six semesters, based on the student
surveys and regarding the interest of these experiments and the
advantages of remote access are:
 83% of bachelor's students recognized that such experi-
ments are important for the learning process. The main
reasons invoked are the motivation to learn automation
CORDEIRO ET AL.
| 683

FIGURE 7 Proficy IFix32 as supervisory software (OPC client)

using new devices that allow remote interaction using used the remote connection to program the PLCs. In
PCs or tablets and the increased autonomy to work accordance with this survey, 74% of the students tried to
outside the laboratory class. Although they recognize program the controllers remotely. The remaining 36%
the importance of these experiments, not all the students mentioned they have established the remote connection

FIGURE 8 OPC server (TopServer Toolbox software)

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| CORDEIRO
FIGURE 9 PLC used as process simulator (TSX 57302) from
Schneider Electric
with PLC and SCADA at least once or twice just for
curiosity or to show parents or friends and they have
never intended to program the controller remotely. The
main reason pointed out is the lack of time to
accomplish these tasks because they have other subjects
to study;
 6% of bachelor's students said that they tried but could not
be able to access from home for unknown reasons;
 7% of bachelor's students said they never tried because they
prefer to do everything directly in the laboratory with
colleagues and professors help;
 4% of Bachelor's students did not answer or did not want to
participate in this survey;
 92% of Master's students also recognize that this is a good
educational project to test the knowledge acquired in the
courses. The main reasons pointed out were the motivation
to create process simulators that will be used by other
students and the possibility to learn how to configure
software and hardware in order to obtain a remote
connection;
 8% of Master's students did not answer or did not want to
participate in this survey.
FIGURE 10 Programming software for TSX CPUs (PL7 Junior)
from Schneider Electric
ET AL.
FIGURE 11 Starter kit used as process controller (ILC 131 ETH
PLC) from Phoenix Contact
Based on the results achieved so far, it seems that most
students are pleased with the experiments conducted in the
automation laboratory as a complement to theoretical classes.
It seems that this project increased the autonomous work
abilities and motivation regarding automation. The evaluation
results show that most students think that remote laboratories
are important as a complement to laboratory classes.
Nevertheless, the survey revealed that a significant number
of students do not have time to access remotely to complete
the tasks or just do it for curiosity since they prefer to work
with colleagues in the laboratory.
To evaluate this educational project, the results,
obtained after and prior to the implementation of this
project, more specifically from 2014 to 2016 (six semesters)
and from 2011 to 2013, are presented in Table 1. From this
table, it is possible to see the values (X/Y), where X is the
number of students that completed the course successfully
in percentage and Y is the average grade of students that
completed the course successfully in percentage. The results
indicate an improvement in both of the sets of evaluation
results (bachelor's and master's degree) after the implemen-
tation of the project. Alternatively, in accordance with the
opinion of the students, the number of working hours that
they spent in programming the PLCs increased due to their
increased motivation in developing a work with high
quality.
6 | CONCLUSIONS
An educational project for the interactive learning of
industrial automation has been presented in this work. The
main objective is to motivate students for industrial
automation and improve their ability to solve problems in
this engineering area. New technological advances have
undoubtedly promoted the development of new teaching and
CORDEIRO ET AL.
| 685

FIGURE 12 Software used to program the process controllers (PC Worx) from Phoenix Contact

learning methodologies and the combination of local
and remote classes is probably one of the most promising
and valuable scientific and pedagogical strategy in education
today. Under this context, a new laboratory that allows
students to program PLCs through local or remote connection
was implemented. This laboratory was also developed in
order to allow students to program two PLCs, in which one of
them is implemented in the simulation of the process and in
the other controls the same process. Finally, since they will
develop the simulator of the system process they will acquire
a better perception of the problems related with the processes
that will be controlled by the PLCs. The results achieved in
this educational project seems to indicate that experiments
conducted in real laboratories are the crucial learning
experience in engineering schools and provide the excep-
tional opportunity to deal with didactic and real industrial
equipment. It also seems that most students are pleased with
this project and think that the access to the laboratory at
nonworking hours create conditions to improve or finish
experiments that could not be completed in the class period.

FIGURE 13 Photograph of selected equipment used in the proposed educational experiment

686
| CORDEIRO ET AL.

TABLE 1 Results of the evaluation during the last 6 years 2011– 9. V. Fernão Pires et al., Distance learning power system protection
2016 (2011 until 2013 are prior to this educational project) based on testing protective relays, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electr. 55
(2008), 2433–2438.
Year Bachelor (X/Y) Master (X/Y)
10. D. Hercog et al., A DSP-based remote control laboratory, IEEE
2011 79.3%/69.1% 91.7%/72% Trans. Ind. Electr. 54 (2007), 3057–3068.
2012 88.8%/72.4% 96%/79.7% 11. S-J. Hsieh and P. Hsieh, Web-based modules for programmable
2013 100%/74.2% 81.3%/77.5% logic controller education, Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ. 13 (2005),
266–279.
↑Average 89.4%/71.9% 89.7%/76.4%
12. C. C. Ko et al., Development of a web-based laboratory for control
2014 94.7%/78.8% 100%/81% experiments on a coupled tank apparatus, IEEE Trans. Educ. 44
2015 100%/79.6% 92.9%/83.3% (2001), 76–86.
2016 92.9%/86.3% 88.9%/87.8% 13. M. Mirzakhani, H. Ashrafzadeh, A. Ashrafzadeh, The virtual
university: Advantages and disadvantages, 4th Int. Conf. on
↑Average 95.9%/81.6% 93.9%/84%
Distance Learning and Education − ICDLE, 32–36 (2010).
14. H. Mostefaoui, A. Benachenhou, and A. A. Benattia, Design of
a low cost remote electronic laboratory suitable for low
This interactive learning methodology assumes more and bandwidth connection, Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ. 25 (2017),
more importance in engineering institutions, since the number 480–488.
of industrial and domestic equipment with remote interfaces 15. M. Prasanna Kumar, Information Technology: Roles, Advantages
is growing rapidly. and Disadvantages, Int. J. Adv. Res. Comput. Sci. Softw. Eng. 4
(2014), 1020–1024.
16. M. Rampazzo, A. Cervato, and A. Beghi, Remote refrigeration
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Appl. Eng. Educ. 25 (2017), 430–440.
The authors would like to thank Phoenix Contact for
17. S. Reynard et al., Flexible manufacturing cell SCADA system
providing industrial equipment under the EDUNET protocol
for educational purpose, Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ. 16 (2008),
established between this worldwide company and ISEL and 21–30.
by the support of national funds through FCT − Fundação 18. F. Rodríguez et al., Architecture to develop semi-virtual industrial
para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, under project UID/CEC/ laboratories for the interactive learning of process automation,
50021/2013. Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ. 24 (2016), 335–346.
19. A. Rojko, D. Hercog, and K. Jezernik, Power engineering and
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CORDEIRO ET AL.
A. CORDEIRO was born in Portugal in
1976, received his BS degree in Elec-
trical Engineering from Instituto Supe-
rior de Engenharia de Lisboa in 1999.
He received the MSc and PhD degrees
in Electrical Engineering from IST,
Technical University of Lisbon, in
2004 and 2015, respectively. His res-
earch interests include power electronics, variable speed
drives, automation systems, and electrical vehicles. He is
also professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering
and Automation of Instituto Superior de Engenharia de
Lisboa for the area of Automation since 2006. His present
research interests include the areas of power-electronic
converters, industrial automation, and robotics.
V. FERNÃO PIRES (M’96–SM’09)
received the BS degree in Electrical
Engineering from Institute Superior of
Engineering of Lisbon, Portugal, in
1988 and the MS and PhD degrees in
Electrical and Computer Engineering
from Technical University of Lisbon,
Portugal, in 1995 and 2000, respec-
tively. Since 1991 he is a member of the teaching staff at
Electrical Engineering Department of Superior Technical
School of Setúbal – Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal.
Presently he is a professor, teaching Power Electronics
and Control of Power Converters. He is also researcher at
Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores,
Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa (INESC-ID).
His work has resulted in more than 150 publications. His
present research interests include the areas of power-
electronic converters, fault diagnosis and fault tolerant
operation, renewable energy, electrical drives, and power
quality.
| 687
D. FOITO received the Dipl. Ing. and
MS degrees in Electrical Engineering
from Instituto Superior Técnico,
Technical University of Lisbon,
Lisbon, Portugal in 1993 and 2002,
respectively. He received PhD degree
in Electrical Engineering from Faculty
of Sciences and Technology, Univer-
sidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal in
2015. Since 1997 he is a member of the teaching staff at
Electrical Engineering Department of Superior Technical
School of Setúbal – Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal.
Presently he is a adjoint professor, teaching Power
Electronics and Electric Drives. His research interests
include renewable energy generation, electrical machines,
electric drives, electric vehicle, fault diagnosis, and fault
tolerant operation.
How to cite this article: Cordeiro A, Fernão Pires
V, Foito D. Combining local and remote laboratories
for the interactive learning of industrial automation.
Comput Appl Eng Educ. 2018;26:675–687.
https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.21922