Design of a Digital Twin for the MPS Sorting System
摘要
Digital Twin technology has attracted significant attention a lots in recent years. By using a virtual 3D representation to replicate a system’s various processes, a Digital Twin enables engineers to test and verify the control system in a simulated virtual environment to achieve rapid set-up and optimization before actual deployment. This paper presents the development and implementation of a digital twin for a modular production system (MPS) sorting system, which is combined of a customized handling station and a customized sorting station of Festo Didactic, Germany. A virtual replica of the system was developed as a 3D model using CIROS software. Real-time data from the physical system was collected via a programmable logic controller (PLC) system and transferred to the digital model using an open platform communication unified architecture (OPC UA). As a result, the Digital Twin is capable of visually representing the real state of the MPS sorting system through a 3D simulation with a delay of 500 ms actualization.