A Digital Twin is the concept of creating a digital replica of physical models (such as a robot). This is similar to establishing a simulation using a robot operating system (ROS) or other industrial-owned platforms to simulate robot operations and sending the details to the robot controller. In this paper, we propose a Digital Twin model that assists in the online/remote programming of a robotic cell by creating a 3D digital environment of a real-world configuration. Our Digital Twin model consists of two components, (1) a physical model: FANUC robot (M-10iA/12), and (2) a digital model: Unity (a gaming platform) that comes with specialized plugins for virtual and augmented reality devices. One of the main challenges in the existing approach of robot programming is writing and modifying code for a robot trajectory that is eased in our framework using a Digital Twin. Using a Digital Twin setup along with Virtual Reality, we observe the trajectory replication between digital and physical robots. The simulation analysis provided a latency of approximately 40 ms with an error range of −0.28 to 0.28${}^{\circ }$ across the robot joint movements in a simulation environment and −0.3 to 0.3${}^{\circ }$ across the actual robot joint movements. Therefore, we can conclude that our developed model is suitable for industrial applications.

During the years common understanding of the possibilities and perspectives of Virtual Reality (VR) usage has been changed. It is thought that VR is mainly used in entertainment purposes, but it is being used already for many years in different industries, and now with easier access to the hardware it became a helpful and accessible tool that could be used and developed in any field of human activities. In manufacturing, immersive technologies are mainly used nowadays for the visualisation of processes and products combining those visuals into the factory Digital Twin (DT) which is possible to view from the inside look. This feature is already being used in several manufacturing simulation tools, which enable to view onto industrial line / robotic cells via Virtual Reality glasses. However, the potential of using simulations with VR in manufacturing is not fully uncovered. The main aim of this, industrial robotics targeted research is to enable besides simulation also universal control algorithms through Virtual Reality experience, produced by game engine Unity3D, which can be easily modified for a wide range of industrial equipment. The primary outcome of this work is the development of the synchro-nisation model of real and virtual industrial robots and experimental testing the developed model in Virtual Reality and shop floor labs

The adoption of Digital Twin (DT) solutions for industrial purposes is increasing among small- and medium-sized enterprises and is already being integrated into many large-scale companies. As there is an increasing need for faster production and shortening of the learning curve for new emerging technologies, Virtual Reality (VR) interfaces for enterprise manufacturing DTs seem to be a good solution. Furthermore, with the emergence of Industry 5.0 (I5.0) paradigm, human operators will be increasingly integrated in the systems interfaces though advanced interactions, pervasive sensors, real time tracking and data acquisition. This scenario is especially relevant in collaborative automated systems where the introduction of immersive VR interfaces based on production cell DTs might provide a solution for the integration of the human factors in the modern industrial scenarios. This study presents experimental results of the comparison between users controlling a physical industrial robot system via a traditional teach pendant and a DT leveraging a VR user interface. The study group involves forty subjects including experts in robotics and VR as well as non-experts. An analysis of the data gathered in both the real and the virtual use case scenario is provided. The collected information includes time for performing a task with an industrial robot, stress level evaluation, physical and mental effort, and the human subjects’ perceptions of the physical and simulated robots. Additionally, operator gazes were tracked in the VR environment. In this study, VR interfaces in the DT representation are exploited to gather user centered metrics and validate efficiency and safety standards for modern collaborative industrial systems in I5.0. The goal is to evaluate how the operators perceive and respond to the virtual robot and user interface while interacting with them and detect if any degradation of user experience and task efficiency exists compared to the real robot interfaces. Results demonstrate that the use of DT VR interfaces is comparable to traditional tech pendants for the given task and might be a valuable substitute of physical interfaces. Despite improving the overall task performance and considering the higher stress levels detected while using the DT VR interface, further studies are necessary to provide a clearer validation of both interfaces and user impact assessment methods.

The concept of Digital Twin is creating and maintaining a digital representation of the real physical entity and supporting its performance utilizing simulation and optimization tools, which are fed with the real data obtained from the physical equipment. Development and implementation of the Digital Twin technology are one of the main challenges for today’s industry, more detailed studies are needed on design methods for Digital Twins. Besides using Digital Twin as a high-quality simulation, one of the commitments is monitoring and maintaining control of the whole system via a constant live link between virtual and physical entities. The related research study presents a detailed structural description of the developed Digital Twin virtual entity and the development of a framework that allows Robot Operating System (ROS) to securely communicate with remote Digital Twins via the Internet and harness ROS’s adaptability across vast distances and multiple systems. This paper is an extended version of the authors’ International Conference on Electrical Power Drive Systems (ICEPDS20) paper, in which we propose a development case study of Digital Twin for an electric motor based on an empirical performance model.

Digital Twin (DT) concept nowadays is shown via the simulations of the manufacturing systems and included those production processes and parametric 3D models of the product. It is the primary method for planning, analysing and optimising the factory layout and processes. Moreover, work on management via the simulation in real-time is already done using Virtual Reality (VR) tools from a safe and remote environment. However, there is a list of limitation of such kind of digital systems, as connectivity speed and precision of the digital environment. The primary goal of this study is to access second listed limitation and on the example of the fully synchronised physical with its digital replica industrial robot, increase the level of precision of the developed DT environment. The proposed approach introduces transfer of the mathematical model to the virtual environment, thus creating a precise and scaled visual model of the Industrial Robot.