RESEARCH PROGRAM

Title: Development of a 5G-capable Digital Twin of a Machine Tool

 

Name: Jan-Philipp Mertes

E-Mail: jan.mertes@mv.uni-kl.de

Phone: 0631 205 4306

 

Project description:

 

Starting situation

In cyber-physical production systems collaborating computational entities with an intensive connection with the surrounding physical world, while providing and using data access and processing services available over the Internet, are needed. Therefore, different heterogenous communication technologies are needed to provide the interconnectivity of different assets in manufacturing systems. A solution is the new cellular network standard 5G that meets the networking requirements for many industrial use cases due to the possible low latency, high bandwidth, and high device density, while providing a very good quality of service. These capabilities enable the wireless realization of digital twins, a key element of a cyber-physical production systems and an emerging technology, which enables the convergence of the physical world with the digital world. However, there is currently no 5G-enabled digital twin of a machine tool, especially one that allows direct interaction with the physical system.

 

Approach

The approach is to develop and implement a digital twin to control and visualize a machine tool. Thereby, a bidirectional controlling of the physical machine and the digital asset is realized by outsourcing the machine control unit to an edge server via 5G. The visualization, simulation and monitoring instances of the digital twin are also outsourced to the edge server and obtain the required information from the control system outsourced via 5G. In addition, 5G-capable sensors will be implemented to the digital twin to gain further data for a comprehensive process simulation and process evaluation.

 

Expected Results

The result will be a platform for 5G-capable digital twins in a central computing unit. Thereby, simulating, modelling, and evaluating the physical assets will be possible and facilitated. Moreover, the expandability of the platform is ensured by retrofittable 5G sensors so that further data-based simulations or evaluations can occur in the future.