A Virtual Plant System for Control System and Automation

This paper presents a virtual plant system, which is employed in the teaching process of the BTEC course of Control System and Automation. This system simulates different physical plants and demonstrates that experiments based on the virtual plant system can give students a vivid experience in this course. The virtual plant system has been proposed to reduce cost and simplify maintenance of lab facilities. As we do both, the development and employment of virtual plants, the paper includes approach to virtual plants development, description of some of them as well as our experience of their usage. The virtual plant system improves previous educational experiences in the course of Control System and Automation