Industry 4.0, as an enabler of smart factories, focuses on flexible automation and customization of products by utilizing technologies such as the Internet of Things and cyber–physical systems. These technologies can also support the creation of virtual replicas which exhibit real-time characteristics of a physical system. These virtual replicas are commonly referred to as digital twins. With the increased adoption of digitized products, processes and services across manufacturing sectors, digital twins will play an important role throughout the entire product lifecycle. At the same time, collaborative robots have begun to make their way onto the shop floor to aid operators in completing tasks through human–robot collaboration. Therefore, the focus of this paper is to provide insights into approaches used to create digital twins of human–robot collaboration and the challenges in developing these digital twins. A review of different approaches for the creation of digital twins is presented, and the function and importance of digital twins in human–robot collaboration scenarios are described. Finally, the paper discusses the challenges of creating a digital twin, in particular the complexities of modelling the digital twin of human–robot collaboration and the exactness of the digital twin with respect to the physical system.

Personalised therapeutic drugs are the future of the medical drug sector. For manufacturers, this will require the flexibility to produce many different unique batches within a given facility. This research paper aims to demonstrate the potential of mobile collaborative robots for improving current manufacturing practices in personalised therapeutics. The benefits and challenges of introducing robots in biologics are explored, including current practices, limitations, likely future practices, and the market outlook. Experiments demonstrating the application of a mobile collaborative robot to perform three different routine tasks is presented. These experiments include the transport of centrifugal tubes, manipulation of infusion bags, and scanning of Petri dishes for environmental monitoring. The investigations highlight the potential of collaborative mobile robotic platforms for automating the routine tasks carried out within the biomanufacturing sector.