Teaching Industrial Automation Concepts with the use of Virtual/Augmented Reality - The IEC 61499 Case

We propose a framework for teaching complex industrial automation concepts with the help of Virtual/Augmented reality. Initially we construct the needed 3D models like conveyors belts, and liquid tanks to be used as testbed examples for the proposed approach and afterwards with the use of the appropriate engine and the Virtual Reality headset we create the enriched virtual and augmented reality use cases to support higher education students better understand complex industrial automation concepts. As this is an initial framework proposal, an extended literature review providing the needed background information on the status and progress of the Virtual and Augmented reality for educational and not only purposes is provided. The proposed system's architecture is in detail explained and use cases where the proposed approach can be used are presented. An overview of the IEC 61499 framework is also presented since it is the underlying framework for supporting the industrial automation concepts.