BUILDING A DIGITAL TWIN OF AN AUTOMATED ROBOT WORKCELL

Published

May 26, 2023

Author(s)

Deogratias Kibira, Guodong Shao, Rishabh Venketesh

Abstract

Building a digital twin of a manufacturing system can positively impact its performance with respect to productivity, energy consumption, product quality, and cost. However, leveraging available methods and tools to build a digital twin has been a challenge for many manufacturers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The result is that while there is a significant number of research publications on the subject, implemented digital-twin cases are still relatively few. This paper describes a method of instantiating the ISO 23247 framework for building a digital twin of a laboratory sized workcell comprising robot arms, a CNC machine tool, and a coordinate measuring machine (CMM). The modeling tools and environment for the digital twin development of the workcell have been identified. The MTConnect standard is implemented to collect data from a robot arm to update the status of the digital counterpart. Integration of workcell components, and communication between workcell equipment and their digital counterparts are discussed. The outcome of this research will provide implementation guidelines to industries seeking to build digital twins for their manufacturing assets.

Proceedings Title

Annual Modeling and Simulation Conference (ANNSIM)

Conference Dates

May 23-26, 2023

Conference Location

Hamilton, CA

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

Digital twin, Robot workcell, MTConnect

Citation

Kibira, D. , Shao, G. and Venketesh, R. (2023), BUILDING A DIGITAL TWIN OF AN AUTOMATED ROBOT WORKCELL, Annual Modeling and Simulation Conference (ANNSIM), Hamilton, CA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=936285 (Accessed October 2, 2025)