Digital Twin & Virtual Reality Enabled Conveyor System to Promote Learning Factory Concept

Manufacturing and industrial engineering education has encountered several challenges in addressing the educational demands of rapidly advancing technologies such as Industry 4.0, virtual reality (VR), digital twin (DT), etc. On the one hand, conventional laboratory facilities are unable to cope with this demand due to their nature of isolated operations. On the other, there is also a need to expose the students to concepts like Industry 4.0 and DT, where a virtual replica of the physical system is created and connected in real time. Therefore, this study aimed to establish DT connectivity between the physical and digital models of a conveyor available in a manufacturing system in a learning factory (LF). The integration of existing hardware with a simulated platform, utilizing an IoT-enabled environment and operating the hardware through VR setups, enabled seamless interaction between the physical and virtual realms, enhancing control, visualization, and optimization of hardware systems. Moreover, in addition to facilitating the DT, a VR platform has been integrated with the digital model of the conveyor system, enabling control of the physical system through a VR setup. The positioning accuracy of the conveyor carried pallet was tested for several locations, and results revealed that the digital model indicates the pallet position to the accuracy level of the nearest 2.5 mm. Furthermore, it could be concluded that the setup developed in this research could be used as an LF for engineering undergraduates to learn new concepts such as Industry 4.0, DT, and VR-enabled digital-physical integration.