Application of a Fuzzy System for Students' Evaluation in the Industrial Automation Area

Literature reports a growing number of successful case scenarios of simulators or training tools in the industrial control and automation area. Considering the learning environment in the industrial automation area, which is a complex area that may lead to ambiguous and in many cases unfair evaluation methods, it is essential to implement an evaluation system that enables teachers to identify the students' strong and weak points. In this context, this article introduces a original proposal that uses fuzzy sets to evaluate users in a Fieldbus Networks Teaching Laboratory. Such proposal divides the student's evaluation in three distinct industrial automation areas: FOUNDATION Fieldbus industrial protocol theory; tuning and optimization of industrial process control loops; and identifying control strategies in industrial processes. Thus, the student will no longer simply "Pass" or "Fail" an evaluation. In this evaluation system, the student will be graded in the three different automation areas separately and, after compiling each individual grade, the student will "Fail", "Pass with Many Restrictions", "Pass with Few Restrictions", or "Pass".