Emulation of a manufacturing process : Focusing on maintenance and operator training

Having well-trained operators is a crucial need for Volvo Group Truck Operations (GTO). Mistakes from the factory staff may cause the production line to stop, and lead to economic losses. For this reason, Volvo GTO has decided to investigate the possibility of creating an emulation model from the production line and using it to train operators and maintenance personnel. The aim of this thesis is to develop an Operator Training Station (OTS) for the OP035 of the Volvo GTO Production Line 6. In the first part, a literature research was conducted, from which the authors gained insight into related fields such as emulation, virtual environments, and operator training. After that, an emulation model of theOP035 was created using some hardware from the factory. The real PLC program was analyzed and then modified in order to implement it to the emulation model. Then, communications were established between the different parts; emulation model and PLC program. Finally, a research of the common failures and problems of the production line was carried out, with the aim of being able to reproduce them in the Operator Training Station. Once the OTS was implemented, several tests had undergone to validate its behavior. These experiments verified that the emulation model was an accurate representation of the real system and validated its appropriateness for the operator training applicatio