Integration of Extended Reality with a Cyber-Physical Factory Environment and its Digital Twins

Abstract

In this paper, we present an example of complete integration of eXtended Reality technologies within a demonstration laboratory showcasing Industry 4.0/5.0 compliant machinery in realistic scenarios of use. We describe the design choices and the implementation of the augmented and virtual reality applications developed and potentially usable to support different real-world tasks, featuring advanced gesture-based interaction modes. We also describe the optimized communication architecture used to synchronize data between the cyber-physical factory environment with all its components, its industrial digital twin, and the augmented and virtual replica of the factory. Example tasks supported with the tools in public demonstrations allow users wearing Microsoft HoloLens 2 or Meta Quest 2 headsets to monitor the status of the prototype production line and operate on it, locally or remotely. An example video showing the applications is available in the supplementary material.