Modern manufacturing systems are influenced by the growing complexity of mechatronics, control systems, IIoT, and communication technologies integrated into cyber-physical systems. These systems demand flexibility, modularity, and rapid project execution, making digital tools critical for their design. Virtual commissioning, based on digital twins, enables the testing and validation of control systems and designs in virtual environments, reducing risks and accelerating time-to-market. This research explores the development of digital twin models to bridge the gap between simulation and real-world validation. The models identify design flaws, validate the PLC control code, and ensure interoperability across software platforms. A case study involving a modular Festo manufacturing system modelled in Tecnomatix Process Simulate demonstrates the ability of digital twins to detect inefficiencies, such as collision risks, and to validate automation systems virtually. This study highlights the advantages of virtual commissioning for optimizing manufacturing systems. Communication testing showed compatibility across platforms but revealed limitations with certain data types due to software constraints. This research provides practical insights into creating robust digital twin models, improving the flexibility, efficiency, and quality of manufacturing system design. It also offers recommendations to address current challenges in interoperability and system performance.

Topography and surface roughness is defined as a set of surface textures formed due to used machining or other production technology. It is a key factor mainly for dynamically stressed components. Greater surface roughness negatively affects the fatigue strength of component or its wear resistance.The paper deals with the visualization and processing of data obtained from a laser confocal microscope Zeiss LSM 700. Data acquired by LSM software ZEN2009 are exported in the text form of 3D coordinates of the image data points and are arranged as a set of 2D profiles with resolution 1.10^-7 m. The aim is to describe an alternative method of evaluating raw data extracted from z-stack of acquired TIFF images in order to achieve higher precision and identify the topography of the scanned sample surface. Different methods of data processing have been tested to eliminate deficiencies located mainly in the parts of the scanned surface with low intensity.

A digital twin is an effective tool for the design, testing, and validation of control strategies for electro-pneumatic actuators in industrial automation. This study presents and compares three different digital twin models of a pneumatic cylinder with varying levels of physical fidelity—from basic discrete control, through analogue control without pneumatic dynamics, to a complex model simulating pressure, friction, and airflow. The experiments were conducted using the Siemens NX Mechatronics Concept Designer, integrated with the SIMIT emulation platform and a PLC control system via the standardized OPC UA protocol. The main objective was to evaluate simulation accuracy, model flexibility for testing various control strategies, and the ability of the digital twin to reflect changes in PLC algorithms. The results showed that while simple models are suitable for verifying basic logic, only advanced models can realistically replicate the dynamic behaviour of pneumatic systems, including delay phases and pressure influence. A comparison with the experimental study by Jiménez confirmed a strong correlation between the simulated and actual actuator behaviour. In future work, the developed control algorithm will be connected to a physical cylinder to further validate the models and refine control strategies under real-world conditions.

This article deals with a design of a fuzzy control system for robotic arm and its implementation to PLC. Fuzzy logic is used to calculate the proper speed of robot tool center point depending on the tilt of the joystick handle in manual operating mode. In fully automatic mode the fuzzy logic is used in form of a fuzzy PI controller to achieve the desired velocity with the load compensation. Fuzzy system was designed in the Siemes Fuzzy Control ++ and was implemented to Simatic S7-300 PLC.

Digitalization is a hot topic today in every business, affecting the whole life cycle of a process or a product. This paper focuses on the design phase of automation systems, especially creating a digital twin of a machine to support the software development of the control system and its virtual commissioning. Different simulation model architectures are introduced, as well as specific use-case. The main objective of this paper is to present three basic types of digital twin architectures for virtual commissioning of production devices and systems. These architectures were investigated and built based on predefined requirements. Collaborative project work for the development of the digital twin and efficiency was defined as one of the requirements. Efficiency is required due to the software and hardware used for the digital twin. Architectures such as centralized, basic distributed and completely distributed were introduced in the paper. Based on the results from observation and testing, the authors recommend using the concept of completely distributed architecture of the digital twin based on the defined requirements. This digital twin architecture separates mechanical engineering and automation engineering with respect to PC stations. Nevertheless, it interconnects them using the standard machine-to-machine software and communication interfaces.