A Testbed for Digital Twin Technologies in Manufacturing and Engineering

Digital technologies are revolutionizing every aspect of our society. For the manufacturing industry, digital integration holds a vast potential in terms of automation, analytics, data visualization, quality improvement, and much more. Effective implementation of new technology requires knowledge and competency that usually takes time to develop. For many companies, demonstrations and hands-on experience accelerate technology adoption by providing clear use cases that can be applied in the company’s own context. At the Systems Catapult, the digital and physical infrastructure for demonstrating digital twin technologies is being established through the BatNet project. The goal of this activity is to provide companies, vocational schools, and universities with a testbed for demonstrating industry 4.0 technologies and cyber-physical systems in practice. This also allows companies to experiment with technology on demo-cases and to validate new processes with minimal investments. With battery packing as a demonstration case, the pilot line showcases multiple benefits gained from digital integration, including: 1. Flexible manufacturing, such as the ability to produce different product variations with minimal setup and live adjustments based on external data sources. 2. Artificial intelligence, utilized for quality predictions, quality control and process optimization. 3. Predictive maintenance, which entails intelligent monitoring and data driven planning. 4. Digitally enhanced operator, where information is displayed flexibly and intuitively for increased efficiency and quality in manual operations. The backbone of the pilot line is a continuous digital thread from design and engineering, through modelling and simulations, to manufacturing and operations. This integration of technologies enables three levels of digital twin technologies to be represented in a single system: (i) off-line simulations for planning and optimization in digital models, (ii) real time visualization and monitoring of the environment through a digital shadow, and (iii) integration of real time analytics and adaptive control with a digital twin. Future developments are expected to expand the capabilities of the pilot line to meet the ever-changing needs of industry and academia. Building upon the experience of users and industrial partners, the infrastructure will evolve beyond the described use cases towards a multifaceted center of competence.