The current lab setup at many two and four-year colleges and universities makes it difficult to teach some of the more complex programs of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). This is due to the fact that it is cost prohibitive for programs to buy external control elements such as conveyors and tanks. By creating a LabVIEW program that interacts with the PLC and the students, modules ranging from introductory PLC programs to complex PLC programs can be simulated. This system simulates costly hardware and facilitates complex system instruction. The methods used to implement this work include the integration of the PLC with LabVIEW, a graphical user interface (GUI), lab modules that test student PLC programming abilities, and an assessment program that rates student understanding of PLC functions used in lab modules. This work combines PLC programming, system simulation, and testing into an integrated system.
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