Education on automatic control for professionals through the LRA-ULE remote laboratory

In the last years, many advances have been made in the development of virtual and remote laboratories in the field of automatic control. These laboratories constitute an excellent framework for education in technological subjects. The success of these platforms at the university level foresees their broad application for lifelong education of professionals. This work presents how the Remote Laboratory of Automatic Control at the University of León has been used for education of professionals in industrial automation and building energy management. First, we describe the system architecture that enables the addition of industrial equipment, which have been recently commercialized by major automation manufacturers and therefore demand specific educational actions. Next, the educational contents linked to these equipment which have been included in the laboratory are described. These contents have been used to develop a set of courses both for professionals and professional educators. Finally, the results of surveys answered by the students about the platform are presented and the advantages of this type of laboratories for continuing training in companies are discussed.