Digital Twins: Innovation in Automated Systems Control Education

This paper presents the development of a learning tool based on Digital Twins, designed to generate a virtual environment controlled by a PLC S7-1200. This tool allows engineering students to interact in an active and practical way with simulated industrial processes. The real-time communication between the controller and the work environment contributes significantly to decision making, allowing students to design, control and manipulate industrial processes with precision, as well as to respond to possible eventualities during the execution of such processes. To evaluate the usability of the tool, the System Usability Test (SUS) was applied to a homogeneous group of 20 students, obtaining an average score of 86.5, which classifies the tool in the “good” range. This result suggests that the tool is perceived as interactive and immersive, creating an active and user-friendly work environment.