Simulation Based High Fidelity Digital Twins of Manufacturing Systems: An Application Model and Industrial Use Case.

Modern manufacturing systems are required to be developed, commissioned, and reconfigured faster than ever before. Conventional methods for the development of manufacturing systems are time-consuming due to their sequential nature. A digital twin is an emerging technology that can offer a high-fidelity simulation of a real manufacturing system including its kinematics, automation program, behavior, user interface, and production parameters. Such a unified digital twin can be used as a support tool for verification and validation of complex behavior of modern-day manufacturing systems during design, commissioning, reconfiguration, maintenance, and for end-of-life. The resulting benefits are to speed up the development and reconfiguration phases and improve system reliability. This article presents a framework to develop and use a digital twin for the development of complex machines. An industrial case from a large automation company is presented.