3D Virtual Training System for a Bioreactor Using Hardware-in-the-Loop.

Abstract

This paper simulates a 3D virtual environment of a bioreactor based on the teaching-learning process in the engineering area. Using the Hardware-in-the-Loop simulation technique, the simulator was developed in the Unity 3D graphic engine, which is oriented to maintain in optimal conditions the variables involved in the process, such as: Biomass, recirculated biomass, dissolved oxygen, and chemical oxygen demand, the latter being the controlled variable. For the implemented simulator, traditional control techniques and modern control techniques are considered in order to evaluate the behavior of the variables. In order to give realism to the bioreactor, the hardware-in-the-Loop simulation technique is implemented in a low-cost hardware device, where the mathematical model of the process will be (On hardware-in-the-loop simulation. In 44th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, and the European Control Conference, Seville, Spain), while the control algorithm is implemented in the mathematical software Matlab. Finally, the stability analysis is performed having the variables in their optimal operating points, as well as the good performance of the controllers in the presence of disturbances.