With Virtual5 industrial plant control moves to the cloud

Treviso, March 18, 2026 – Enabling remote control of industrial plants while reducing maintenance costs by up to 25% through continuous monitoring and advanced sensors: this is the objective achieved by Omnia Technologies, a leading global platform in automation and bottling technologies for the beverage and pharmaceutical sectors, through the Virtual5 research project promoted by the SMACT Competence Centre under the IRISS call.

The aim was to revolutionise the control of industrial automated systems through virtualised PLCs, known as “Virtual PLCs” – software solutions that emulate the functions of a traditional hardware Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) in a virtual environment, enabling remote control while ensuring greater flexibility and lower maintenance costs. Virtual PLCs are hosted on a cloud platform developed in collaboration with Schneider Electric and interconnected with the physical plant via 5G networks, both public and private, thanks to TIM’s support.

The feasibility study of the system was made possible thanks to the Omnia Technologies brewhouse located at SMACT’s headquarters in Padua. This brewhouse for beer production served as the project’s starting point. Initially, a traditional PLC was installed on the plant and later digitised through the creation of a Digital Twin. The digital twin enabled the migration of plant data to a virtualised PLC, allowing full control – including remote operation – via a cloud‑based server. The result is a 30% increase in the plant’s operational efficiency.

“The outcome of the project met our expectations: a fully remotely controlled plant that will, in the future, allow us to extend this model to other brewhouses, other breweries, and many of our industrial plants,” explains Enrico Zanusso, Head of Processing Automation & IoT at Omnia Technologies. “The broader impact of the project supports the development of advanced skills in Industry 4.0 automation and process digitalisation, enabling the creation of a model that is not limited to a specific product but can be replicated across all Omnia Technologies sectors, primarily food & beverage and pharmaceuticals. Looking ahead, there will also be new employment opportunities. In terms of results,” Zanusso concludes, “Virtual5 has led to reduced consumption, waste, and environmental impact, contributing to greater sustainability.”

The project aimed to overcome the limitations of traditional PLCs, which are typically installed inside electrical panels of machines and systems, by replacing them with controllers featuring similar characteristics and computing power but in a virtual format — more flexible and easier to manage remotely, while reducing maintenance and operating costs. PLC virtualisation enables plant control via software running in the cloud rather than on proprietary hardware. This transformation ensures faster modifications, backup capabilities, safer system testing, and, as mentioned, remote software‑coding management. Moreover, in the telecommunications domain, private 5G networks ensure high reliability and advanced data‑transmission security, free from external interference.