Real-Time Digital Twin Sensor Data Logger

Overview

This project simulates an industrial process tank in MATLAB/Simulink and streams real-time sensor telemetry to a Python-based monitoring dashboard using TCP/IP communication.

The system acts as a simple Digital Twin by simulating process dynamics, generating virtual sensor data, transmitting measurements over a network connection, visualizing them in real time, and logging all data for further analysis.

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Features

Simulated Sensors

The Simulink model generates realistic sensor measurements including:

• Tank Level Sensor (m)
• Pressure Sensor (Pa)
• Temperature Sensor (°C)
• Flow Sensor (m³/s)

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Real-Time TCP/IP Communication

The simulation continuously transmits sensor data from Simulink to Python using TCP/IP sockets.

Data is transmitted as:

• 64-bit floating point values
• Little-endian byte order
• Continuous real-time stream

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Python Telemetry Dashboard

The Python application:

• Receives live telemetry data
• Displays real-time sensor values
• Continuously updates trend graphs
• Provides visualization similar to a lightweight SCADA system

Graphs include:

1. Tank Level
2. Pressure
3. Temperature
4. Flow Rate

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Data Logging

All incoming sensor measurements are automatically stored in:

sensor_log.csv

The CSV file contains:

Timestamp	Level	Pressure	Temperature	Flow

This data can later be imported into:

• MATLAB
• Excel
• Python
• Power BI
• Tableau

for further analysis.

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System Architecture

+--------------------+
| Simulink Plant     |
| Simulation         |
+----------+---------+
           |
           |
           v
+--------------------+
| Virtual Sensors    |
| Level              |
| Pressure           |
| Temperature        |
| Flow               |
+----------+---------+
           |
           |
           v
+--------------------+
| TCP/IP Send Block  |
+----------+---------+
           |
           |
           v
+--------------------+
| Python TCP Server  |
+----------+---------+
           |
     +-----+-----+
     |           |
     v           v
CSV Logger   Live Dashboard

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Technologies Used

MATLAB / Simulink

Used for:

• Process simulation
• Sensor modeling
• Dynamic system behavior
• TCP/IP communication

Python

Used for:

• Socket programming
• Data acquisition
• Real-time plotting
• CSV data logging

Libraries

pip install matplotlib numpy

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Project Structure

project/
│
├── sensor_logger.py
├── sensor_log.csv
├── simulink_model.slx
├── README.md
└── screenshots/

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Running the Project

Step 1

Start the Python dashboard:

python sensor_logger.py

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Step 2

Run the Simulink model.

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Step 3

Observe:

• Live telemetry values
• Real-time graphs
• Automatic CSV generation

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Example Telemetry Output

Level=4.412 m
Pressure=433.364 Pa
Temp=27.934 C
Flow=0.50000 m3/s

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Learning Outcomes

This project demonstrates:

• Digital Twin fundamentals
• Industrial sensor simulation
• TCP/IP networking
• Real-time telemetry acquisition
• Data visualization
• Process monitoring
• Engineering data logging
• MATLAB–Python integration

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Future Improvements

Potential extensions include:

• PID control implementation
• Alarm management
• MQTT communication
• OPC-UA integration
• Database storage
• Web dashboard
• Predictive maintenance analytics
• Machine learning-based fault detection

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Author

Smruti Ranjan Mishra

Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering

Real-Time Industrial Digital Twin and Telemetry Monitoring Project