Potential users

Production systems, Factories

Benefits for the users

– The main benefits of the demonstrator revolve around increased flexibility by digitalising a production environment and connecting robots and other machines together. 

– A digital twin can be used for testing, validating, and refining assumptions, which leads to …

– Data from a production system can give an enhanced insight into the performance of the system for improved visualisation. 

– It creates a unified method for robot programming which simplifies and standardises the procedure of robot programming. Which again creates a friendly and simple environment for training of employees. 

– The system is made to be flexible and scalable, where robot arms, mobile robots and other machines can be added or removed to the IoT system without compromising the current system.

– The use case creates an agile method for connecting robots and other machines together through a standardized industrial information server (OPC UA standard).

Innovation

This demonstrator allows for machine-to-machine communication which allows for collaboration between robots and other machines from different brands. Instead of going to each robot controller and programming the robots separately. This demonstrator creates a unified method of robot programming, as well as using new methods for programming. 

A digital model of a production environment can be used for optimisation and modification of the environment.

Risks and limitations

- Some robots have closed system and don’t allow for control from an external computer. This demonstrator requires an open robot controller. 

- Since robots are connected through the internet, extra work and consideration on cybersecurity should be done. 

- The mobile robot used to scan the production environment does not have the highest accuracy and therefore the digital twin module does not produce the highest accuracy.

Technology readiness level

6 - Safety approved sensors and systems are commercially available

Sectors of application

Aerospace, Automotive, Manufacturing, Supply chain and logistics.

Potential sectors of application

Production and Healthcare

Patents / Licenses / Copyrights

The module is made for the purpose of providing a proof-of-concept. The designed structure, upsetting, and its associated files are free of charge for internal and external use during the project period.    The software and other related files are under the standard MIT license:    Copyright 2021 The Arctic University of Norway (UiT) Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:   The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.   THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Hardware / Software

Hardware:

Industrial robot

Robot arm

External computer

Software:

Visual Components premium 4.2

OPC UA

Visual Components Experience

Steam VR

Trainings

The training material is under development: http://heinlein.mech.upatras.gr/trinity/use-case-6/

Video

Demonstration video 3of the use case

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNG89UhoR4c