Digital twin-driven rapid reconfiguration of the automated manufacturing system via an open architecture model

• Published in: Robotics and computer-integrated manufacturing Vol. 63; p. 101895
• Main Authors: Leng, Jiewu, Liu, Qiang, Ye, Shide, Jing, Jianbo, Wang, Yan, Zhang, Chaoyang, Zhang, Ding, Chen, Xin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Automation; Computer simulation; Cyber-physical system; Digital twin; Digital twins; Industrial internet of things; Machine tools; Manufacturing; Modules; Open architecture; Open architectures; Optimization; Physical simulation; Process planning; Production capacity; Production planning; Reconfigurable manufacturing system; Reconfiguration; Smart manufacturing; Cyber-physical system; Digital twin; Industrial internet of things; Open architecture; Reconfigurable manufacturing system; Smart manufacturing
• ISSN: 0736-5845; 1879-2537
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rcim.2019.101895

•A novel digital twin-driven approach for rapid reconfiguration of automated manufacturing systems is proposed.•Open-architecture machine tools (OAMTs) that can be rapidly reconfigured are defined and developed.•A REST-based IIoT model is proposed for the rapid reconfiguration of controls and sensor network.•A bi-level programming model of upper-level productivity rebalancing and lower-level reconfiguration cost is presented to find an optimal reconfiguration solution. Increasing individualization demands in products call for high flexibility in the manufacturing systems to adapt changes. This paper proposes a novel digital twin-driven approach for rapid reconfiguration of automated manufacturing systems. The digital twin comprises two parts, the semi-physical simulation that maps data of the system and provides input data to the second part, which is optimization. The results of the optimization part are fed back to the semi-physical simulation for verification. Open-architecture machine tool (OAMT) is defined and developed as a new class of machine tools comprising a fixed standard platform and various individualized modules that can be added and rapidly swapped. Engineers can flexibly reconfigure the manufacturing system for catering to process planning by integrating personalized modules into its OAMTs. Key enabling techniques, including how to twin cyber and physical system and how to quickly bi-level program the production capacity and functionality of manufacturing systems to adapt rapid changes of products, are detailed. A physical implementation is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach to achieving improved system performance while minimizing the overheads of the reconfiguration process by automating and rapidly optimizing it.