Design and Evaluation of an IoT-Enabled Didactic Plant for Industry 4.0

The integration of emerging technologies into educational environments is essential for preparing engineers to meet the demands of Industry 4.0. This work presents the partial results of a project aimed at modernizing a didactic industrial process control plant through the incorporation of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) communication protocol. The plant, originally operated by programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and composed of classical control loops for flow, temperature, and level, was upgraded to include digital connectivity and real-time monitoring. The proposed architecture includes the deployment of an MQTT broker on a repurposed TV Box running a Debian-based system, ultrasonic sensors for level measurement integrated with ESP32 microcontrollers, and communication with a supervisory system. Integration was tested using the Elipse E3 platform, and system performance was evaluated through tests that measured message transmission response time, confirming stable communication and suitable performance for real-time monitoring applications. This implementation promotes practical learning of Industry 4.0 concepts and demonstrates a sustainable, low-cost approach to modernizing legacy educational systems. The results indicate that the proposed architecture is scalable, robust, and wellsuited for future expansions, including the incorporation of additional sensors and supervisory interfaces.