Immersive Digital Twin for Industrial Control Education
Journal
Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Extended Reality
ISSN
3029743
Date Issued
2026-08-15
Author(s)
Andaluz, Víctor H.
Culqui-Tipan, Javier
Type
text::conference output::conference proceedings::conference paper
Abstract
This paper presents the development and implementation of an immersive Digital Twin for industrial control education, conceived as an experiential learning tool that integrates a real industrial control system, a three-dimensional virtual environment, and a real-time communication infrastructure. The proposed approach follows a layered architecture linking a smart tomato greenhouse as the physical process, a Siemens S7-1500 programmable logic controller, a human–machine interface for supervision and variable adjustment, a Unity-based virtual environment for immersive interaction, and an IoT platform for real-time data transmission and remote visualization. The Digital Twin synchronously replicates the physical process, enabling users to analyze the relationship between environmental variables, control decisions, and system response, as well as to identify normal and critical operating conditions. The system was evaluated through an experimental study with twenty undergraduate engineering students, considering usability and learning outcomes. The System Usability Scale yielded an average score of 82.5 (SD = 6.1), indicating high user acceptance. Learning performance, assessed through a test–retest strategy, increased from 55.3 (pre-test) to 76.8 (post-test), corresponding to a mean gain of 21.5 points after two weeks. Statistical analysis confirmed a significant improvement (p < 0.001) with a large effect size, demonstrating the positive impact of the immersive Digital Twin on understanding industrial control systems. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2027.