Towards a Digital Twin of a Robot Workcell: Standards and Methods

Published

October 28, 2024

Author(s)

Deogratias Kibira, Guodong Shao, Rishabh Venketesh

Abstract

Digital twins are poised to improve the way products are designed, manufactured, and managed throughout their life cycle. However, implementing digital twins for small and medium manufacturers (SMM) has been a challenge mainly due to lack of resources and absence of standardized digital twin frameworks. This paper describes the building of a digital twin for a robot workcell using available standards, tools, and methods. The workcell comprises collaborative robot arms, a Computer Numeric Control (CNC) machine tool, and Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM). The ISO 23247 standard provides a guideline for building a digital twin in manufacturing. The MTConnect standard provides a mechanism for data collection and communication between the physical equipment and their digital counterparts. The workcell is represented by physical component models in the virtual world. The result of this research shows that the above standards and methods support building a digital twin of a robot workcell. The data collected and communicated can be used to improving workcell functions such as quality management, and prognostics and health management.

Citation

Simulation-Transactions of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International

Volume

0

Issue

Special Issue

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1177/00375497241290242

Local Download

Keywords

digital twin, methods, standards, data streaming, robot workcell

Citation

Kibira, D. , Shao, G. and Venketesh, R. (2024), Towards a Digital Twin of a Robot Workcell: Standards and Methods, Simulation-Transactions of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International, [online], https://doi.org/10.1177/00375497241290242, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=956818 (Accessed October 10, 2025)