Hardware in the Loop Simulation for Bottle Sealing Process Virtualized on Unity 3D

Abstract

This paper details the design and implementation of a virtualized bottle sealing plant using the Hardware in the Loop technique, for which it is divided into two parts: (i) Software consists of a virtualized environment in Unity 3D to visualize its behavior in real time; and (ii) Hardware was implemented through a PLC S7 1200 AC/DC/RLY (Programmable Logic Controller), which is responsible for the automation of the plant, programmed through the software TIA Portal V16 (Totally Integrated Automation Portal) and a control panel with buttons and indicator lights. The two developed parts communicate through bidirectional TCP/IP Ethernet, achieving a Server–Client architecture. For real-time monitoring and visualization, a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system implemented in InTouch is considered. In addition, the data acquisition is accomplished through the OPC (Open Platform Communication) server; the functionality of the OPC server is to transmit the information generated in an industrial plant at the enterprise level. This allows the process to execute its tasks of connectivity of automated processes and their supervision, as well as having scalability so that more tags can be included in other processes over time and ensure its operability.