Digital twin

Profile

A digital twin is a digital representation that mirrors the real-time operating conditions of a physical system. It helps to deal with manufacturing complexity, driven by the need of customisation and decentralised controls of production environments.

There are 3 main types of digital twins that can attend different purposes: (i) The simplest one, a digital representation of the physical system is created in a digital form and data collected from the real-world by sensors are used to simulate different scenarios for further improvements and decision-making; (ii) The second one includes a real-time feedback from the digital system to the physical system. In this way, the output will directly affect the physical system through actuators; (iii) The last and more complex one adds also a decision-making layer. Here, the output from a scenario manager or an optimisation model is used to help the decision maker to control the physical system in real-time.

By implementing a digital twin, the company will be able to anticipate and optimise in a customised and individual way the operations and maintenance of the physical assets, systems and manufacturing processes.

Services

Design, develop, and implement digital twins

• Design and simulate a digital system
• Develop the integration between the physical and the digital system
• Support the adoption of real-time data collection from IoT devices
• Customise and implement a collaborative table for physical simulation
• Customise the simulation to a virtual reality environment

Workshops about digital twin and related technologies

Technology clarification and expert's report

 

Labs and equipment

The Innovation lab - Smart Learning Factory and VR/AR lab

In the labs, we have state-of-the-art simulation tools with different purposes. The Smart Learning Factory, as part of the Innovation lab, is a playground for research where we can present simulation and the physical small-scale production that we use to demonstrate and test digital twin solutions.

The collaborative table, also called the ‘DTM module’, can make simulation available to non-simulation experts because experiments with the factory layout are done interactively and in collaboration at a simulation table with tangible models of machines, robots and other manufacturing equipment.