Digital Twin to Control and Monitor an Industrial Cyber-Physical Environment Supported by Augmented Reality

Abstract

Increasing industrial development and digital transformations have given rise to a technology called Digital Twin (DT) that has the potential to break the barrier between physical and cyberspace. DT is a virtual and dynamic model enabled through a bidirectional data flow that creates high-reliability models with interconnection and fusion between the physical and digital systems for full integration. In smart manufacturing, this technology is increasingly used in research and industry. However, the studies conducted do not provide a definition or a single integrally connected model. To develop the Digital Twin shown in this research, the literature was reviewed to learn about the enabling technologies and architectures used at the industrial level. Then, a methodology was used to obtain the physical process information, create the digital environment, communicate the physical environment, apply simulation models in the digital environment, and parameterize the simulation environment with the physical process in real-time to obtain the digital twin supported with augmented reality. The system was implemented in the MPS-500 modular production station that has industrial sensors and actuators. The virtual environment was designed with Blender and Vuforia to create the augmented reality environment. In the proposed methodology, robust devices (field and control level) and low-cost embedded systems were used for the creation and communication of the virtual environment (monitoring and control); for the joint work of these technologies, they were carried out through the use of the following protocols: Open Platform Communications United Architecture (OPC UA), Ethernet, and machine to machine (M2M), with which a communication was achieved between the different levels of the automation pyramid. The results show that the proposed methodology for the implementation of the DT allows bidirectional communication between the physical and virtual environment and can also be visualized with the support of AR, thus providing its characteristics to the proposed DT. Digital Twin is an essential factor in creating virtual environments and improving applications between the real and digital world, establishing a bidirectional communication through the Ethernet protocol, with a communication time of approximately 100 ms. This technology interacts with the virtual environment and performs mappings, thus achieving timely and dynamic adjustment. This improves data management and production and incorporates process simulation and physical control in real-time, allowing to execute and trigger actions in the physical equipment simultaneously.