Modular Virtual Preparation method of production systems using a Digital Twin architecture

Even though virtual engineering and preparational work within the automotive industry has become more widely used over the last years with its possibilities to improve software quality and reduce physical commissioning time, it is still a costly investment for most companies when implementing or upgrading production systems. The different approaches and key factors to reduce the costs are to investigate how to reduce the development time of modeling and which practice or standard is most suitable for a certain application. A developer needs to expand the utilization of the virtual work and the re-usability of its digital models, in addition, to find a balance of the required level of modeling details according to the required functionality. This paper presents a framework with a modular software setup that simulates a 3-DOF robot in three different cases with different levels of detail. The outcome of the cases is evaluated in the context of functionality, usefulness, and affordability. The paper further discusses and explores potential use in regards to the concept of Virtual Commissioning and Digital Twin.