Virtual Laboratory to Face New Challenges in the Industry

Abstract

The fast-growing field of technology allows for the development, design, and implementation of smart solutions to several industries such as smart grid, manufacturing, automotive, and robotics. Trends in smart solutions are based on providing a certain degree of intelligence to the process and products through intelligent artificial and machine learning algorithms. It also involves further use of devices based on power electronics elements, fast microcontrollers, intelligent algorithms, and processing of information via local or cloud. Hence, a new workforce that possesses multidisciplinary skills (i.e., dealing with different fields of knowledge in order to find solutions to complex problems) is required. Recently, virtual laboratories have emerged so as to aid in the improvement of forming engineers. In this chapter, a virtual co-simulation laboratory is proposed to deal with the lack of engineers with multidisciplinary skills in mind; additionally, a new framework based in co-simulation, co-modeling, and co-design is proposed in order to maximize the use of the laboratory proposed.