Using Digital Twins in mechatronics and

manufacturing
Ing. David Fait Ing. Václav Mašek Ing. Roman Čermák Ph.D.
Department of Machine Design Department of Machine Design Department of Machine Design
University of West Bohemia University of West Bohemia University of West Bohemia
Pilsen, Czech Republic Pilsen, Czech Republic Pilsen, Czech Republic
[email protected], 0000-0003-3552- [email protected], 0000-0002-0567- [email protected], 0000-0003-0322-
1343 4835 458X
2022 International Symposium on Multidisciplinary Studies and Innovative Technologies (ISMSIT) | 978-1-6654-7013-1/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ISMSIT56059.2022.9932840

Abstract—The purpose of the paper is to elaborate on the The paper first describes the exact use and connection of
methodology of designing new machines called Digital Twins. different software tools. Then it discusses any problems
In this particular case a FESTO MecLab educational encountered and their solution. Lastly, it describes potential
assembly line was used. A digital twin is a virtual model that advances and applications in manufacturing and their
serves as a real-time digital counterpart of a physical object
influence on the standard of life.
or process. [7] It is a model of a real device/object/process on
which it is possible to simulate functionality, communication, II. METHODOLOGY
capacity, etc. Compared to conventional simulations, it differs
in its complexity and its ability to simulate very closely the The educational assembly line prepared by the company
behavior of a real model in many situations with far greater FESTO was used for the simulation. It consists of three
complexity. The paper provides an overview of the technology independent stations, which can be combined or work
and software and lists the advantages of using this approach. independently. The purpose of MecLab is to introduce
[6, 7] automation technology to students on practical, real-world
examples, which are also easily understandable. If students
Keywords—Digital Twin, Mechatronics, Mechatronics
Concept Designer, TIA Portal are introduced to digital machines by learning the basic
principles of electrical and control technologies, they can
I. INTRODUCTION understand and develop their knowledge further by
The advances in Industry 4.0 concepts have facilitated the studying subjects from different angles and working in
growth of Digital Twin technology, especially in different environments. [2]
manufacturing. It involves the integration of data between The FESTO assembly line was simulated using the
a physical and virtual machine in both directions. In the “software in the loop” approach. This term basically
context of Industry 4.0, automation technology is becoming describes the connection of several simulation programs.
increasingly important. For instance, Smart Factories are The output of one is used as the input for the second and
embedded with sensors that generate an enormous amount vice versa. This creates a simulation loop without an actual,
of data. Data management is the key issue in Smart Factory. physical machine.
Intelligent manufacturing solutions leverage data from the
manufacturing processes and use them for process
optimization and also optimizing the whole industrial
production. Human resources are most of the time the most
expensive part of production. Automated systems can
repeatedly achieve the same manufacturing quality. This
field merges classical mechanical engineering with Fig. 1. Software in-the-loop
mechatronics, computer science and presents new
challenges for Artificial Intelligence. A digital twin is a The machine was modeled in separate parts. NX
virtual model of a physical object. It spans the object's Mechatronic Concept Designer (MCD) was used for the
lifecycle and uses real-time data sent from sensors on the mechatronic part, where it is possible to define the 3D
object to simulate its behavior and monitor operations. [8] model and all its movements, as well as sensors, physical
The complete simulation of the machine helps engineers characteristics, and input/output signals.[1] The function of
validate the functionality of industrial concepts without the PLC was simulated by PLCSimAdvanced. It allows a
having to make a prototype. Correcting errors in the very user to make a virtual PLC and the whole electrical/control
early design stages significantly reduces the cost of part of the machine, including a virtual control panel. The
correcting them during operation. Manufacturing is one of PLC was programed in TIAPortal. [9] The main advantage
the most complex industrial processes and requires a huge is the great complexity of the simulation, which enables the
amount of data generation, conversion, storage and correction of potential errors, optimization and verification
processing. Simulations have become vital in such of a concept in the early stages of a design.
situations. Digital twin technology can be used for purposes
such as maintaining optimum production processes, A. Siemens NX – Mechatronic Concept Designer (MCD)
increasing the efficiency of the manufacturing process, and The first task in making a Digital Twin is defining the
to generate cost-effective products for customers. physical and mechanical characteristics of the different parts
of the machine. There are many suitable tools on the market.

978-1-6654-7013-1/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE

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 In this case Mechatronic Concept Designer made by Ladder diagrams could be tricky, so this possibility is very
Siemens was used as a module for the NX CAD program. It useful. [1, 4, 5]
simulates the dynamic behavior and interactions of the
different parts. The geometry of a machine can be modeled III. RESULTS AND PROBLEMS OF THE DESIGN
directly in NX or imported in step format. From the The successful design of a digital twin is very important for
mechanical point of view, we can add rigid body and future optimization. Old mechanical solutions are
collision body properties. Rigid body is an element of the nowadays often replaced by servo drives and intelligent
system which defines an object's reaction to forces and motion control. This improves the dynamic and power
gravity. It calculates mass, center of gravity and moment of
characteristics of a system. Mechatronics systems also tend
inertia. Collision body simplifies the shape of an object to
the “collision shape”. That allows MCD to calculate to have a higher degree of flexibility and less wear. [1] The
collisions efficiently and quickly. Collision body gives the software described above allowed our team to design an
model (3D/plane) a simplified shape according to which assembly line without the need for time-consuming testing
objects will collide with each other. If no collision bodies of a physical prototype.
are defined for an object, the parts will not interact and will
pass through each other.
After basic defining of the objects, links between them
must be added (sliding joint, ball joint, etc.). These basically
define the movement possibilities. MCD also allows the
development of event-based behavior of a machine.
Feedback is controlled by virtual sensors. Machine
operations are defined as time-based actions constraints to
the exact body. DT in MCD could also be connected to the
PLC and operate according to the program. [1]
B. TIA Portal and PLCSim Advanced Fig. 2. Model of the assembly line
The second important part of every digital twin a control
program. As mentioned above, we use “software in the The main advantage was avoiding errors in the control
loop” to simulate the machine, so PLCSim Advanced code. Testing mechatronics machines is complicated
mimics the functionality of a real PLC. TIA Portal is used because every error could lead to a collision which destroys
for programming and controlling the program. First, it is the machine. This is especially important in the case of
necessary to define pins (basically inputs and outputs) and manufacturing machines, which have to move different
then make a program using a ladder diagram and predefined parts of the product. Physical testing and coding could be
functions. This also allows a user to see the changing values acceptable for simple machines with unchanging
of the signals and so control the functionality. [9] production cycle times. However, in industry it is common
C. Setting the parameters of the simulation to make the pace of assembly lines faster whenever
technically possible. This could lead to collisions of
After setting the parameters of Rigid and Collision bodies, machines which had worked fine at slower rates. The cost
the different parts of the model must be connected. The of taking countermeasures during the operational phase of
relations between the different Rigid Bodies are defined by the lifetime is astronomically high. [1, 3, 6]
Joints. These connections of objects take away a certain
number of degrees of freedom, and define the range of
motion.
Function Position Control is used in the next step. It defines
the speed, acceleration, force etc. at which the part can
move in its position according to the defined links.
The next step is the definition of the sensors which will be
used as the output of MCD. They do not simulate the
physical principle of a particular sensor, they just simulate
the functionality, most often by monitoring the collision of
two objects.
The last part of the mechatronic definition are signals and Fig. 3. Influence on Design and Cost [1]
signal adapters. Signals set the output value to true or false.
Signal adapters change the value of the position control A. Hard-to-avoid differences between a model and reality
according to the given formula. The goal of a digital twin is to mirror reality as closely as
The control program is created after the definition of the possible. However, some characteristics are very
mechatronic part. The signals are the output of MCD, so complicated to mimic, because of the complex physics
from the perspective of the TIA Portal they represent the involved.
input. Signal Adapters are inputs for MCD and outputs of One obvious issue is the difference in the piston speeds of
TIA Portal. They are given the same name to avoid hydraulic cylinders. The speed of real pistons is controlled
incorrect mapping later. After naming pins, the control by throttles and air pressure. Normally the throttles are
program can be started. The great advantage of DT is that controlled by a small screw, which opens or closes the
a test can be run after every step to verify its functionality. space in the pipe. Over time these may be opened by the

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 effect of pressure or for example when moving the machine
during maintenance. Such a change is hard to notice using
a Digital Twin. So, the best solution would be to tune the
pace of the line during the initial start and install sensors to
the start and end positions of pistons. A diagnostic which
measures the time necessary for the change in the position
of the piston should also run simultaneously with a control
program. If the movement slows down significantly then
the system should provide a warning, for insignificant
changes it could just change the parameters in the model
accordingly.
A quite similar problem is gripping. It normally combines
two problematic steps, exact positioning, and friction Fig. 4. Bended sheet metal
calculation during the contact. The type of collision body
selected in MCD also plays a significant role. The Festo Another problem connected with modeling the physical
line does not include complicated gripping operations, so properties of machine parts is sliding. This is very
in this case it is possible to solve it by using a carefully important in manufacturing because assembly lines often
designed gripping tool and precise positioning of the puck include many different slides and turnouts. Correct design
under the clamps. could mean the difference between wanted sliding and
An expected problem is the time delay between sending the unwanted rolling. The time needed for sliding can be found
signal and the real movement. The solution is careful only with a properly defined friction coefficient and a
programming. In all these cases, it is normally necessary to correctly chosen rigid body. Correct definition is also
design a machine with certain tolerances, so the potential important because of the pace of the line.
differences do not cause a change in the outcome.
C. Material wear and predictive maintenance
B. Collisions
A Digital Twin does not serve just as a design tool, but also
During the process of making a DT, collisions between as a monitoring device. As mentioned above, the two way
different parts are common. The goal is to avoid them on a flow of information is a very important aspect of the DT.
real prototype. MCD in general reacts badly when a rigid The program should collect the information about the work
body gets pinched between two others. The software on the line. This is important not just for managing the
normally cannot anticipate the forces in a contact and factory, but also for potential intelligent maintenance. The
“throws” the part far away. This obviously does not term “predictive maintenance” is often used in this field.
correspond with the true reaction. So, especially for The point is to maintain and change parts “just in time”.
gripping, it is necessary to set the exact distance of the This means that we should not change the parts according
movements. to calculation or some rigid time rule, but only when it is
On the other hand, MCD is great at preventing collisions necessary. The DT should collect data about actual usage
caused by incorrect programming. However, there are still of the machine (speeds of parts, sensor outputs, energy
limits to its capabilities. The main one is the assumption consumption etc.) and as a result choose the optimal time
that the parts and connections between them are perfectly (just before failure) for maintenance.
rigid. This is wrong especially for small and precise
machinery. Many holders are made of sheet metal, which D. Choice of collision shape
in combination with quite big pneumatic forces can cause The choice of the correct collision shape has a big
bending of different parts and imprecise movements of the influence on the result of a simulation. In Figure 5 there is a
machines. Obviously, this could end up with a collision in comparison of three different collision shapes. Even though
the real machine. An example of such a movement is shown the differences do not appear to be large, they can play a
in Figure 4. In general, there are two ways to solve this significant role especially in the simulation of gripping a
problem. The first is just to design the machine so it is puck. This is also unfortunately the biggest disadvantage of
stiffer, so the potential displacement cannot have a MCD, because there are no general rules how to choose the
significant influence on its functionality. From a practical correct shape to best predict the behavior. MCD also
point of view, this is usually the easiest solution. However, sometimes acts strangely, so for example two pucks with the
same collision body under the same circumstances may
actually it does not deal with the real problem. The best
move differently. Therefore, the final choice depends on the
solution would be to include the stiffness of different
experience of the engineer. This is of course, from the
bodies in the calculation. This requirement leads to the use simulation point of view, not good because it introduces a
of the finite element method. There are of course modules significant human factor.
that could solve statics and dynamics in NX, however
normally it takes quite some time to calculate even basic
examples. So, the continuous calculation of the contacts in
DT in real time is basically out of the question, mainly
because of current computational power.

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 amount of energy must be put into the development to
really perfectly simulate the whole machine without any
simplifications.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
The technology of a DT may look like a overcomplicated
simulation, but actually correctly used it could save a lot of
time and money when designing prototypes. Continuous
Fig. 5. Differences between collision bodies diagnostics and optimization during the whole production
time of a machine is a completely game-changing factor.
A mesh has to be used for more complicated parts. On the other hand, there are also higher demands on the
However, it is not possible to influence the meshing much engineering staff and on the company’s information
or refine the elements at possible contact locations. This system.
leads to a less accurate model. The successful design of a digital twin is very important for
E. Omitted stiffness future optimization. The current pressure on companies to
reduce development and production costs, shorten lead
Another disadvantage is the big simplification of times and lower product prices is increasing. However, the
complex shapes. In our case, this was encountered in
demands for increasing complexity, quality and flexibility
connecting the upper and the lower part of the puck. It was
of the whole production or individual products need to be
not possible to sufficiently simulate their connection
because pressing one part into another could not be addressed more and more. Today's designs do not yet cover
accurately simulated. This could be an issue for bigger all the possible requirements, and this limits the use of DT.
assembly lines. The reason lies in the approach to the Software tools have to be developed to achieve the required
simulation from MCD. Parts are simplified to collision complexity. Digital twins have to be structured with the
bodies which do not include the stiffness characteristics. maximum possible flexibility in design and production.
Obviously, machine parts actually bend. As mentioned Continuous learning enables a digital twin to provide real-
above, MCD does not include FEM calculations, and time information about the condition and status of physical
defining collision bodies is complicated. The action of assets. Management can monitor systems, develop plans
pressing a puck is shown in Figure 6. more precisely, and for example predict the time necessary
for maintenance of crucial parts.
In the future digital twin technology will have a major
influence on business value. According to research, 85% of
all IoT (internet of things) platforms will use to some extent
some kind of digital twin by 2025.[3] There are a number
of driving factors behind its growth, one of which is that it
not only enables analysis, visualization, and simulation of
large quantities of data. DT technology is especially helpful
for asset-intensive industries such as energy and utilities
where the market is very turbulent, and the field itself is
modern and not yet as stabilized as other more "traditional"
parts of industry. Thus, it is important to get a firm foothold
Fig. 6. Pressing a puck
in the energy industry for many reasons; from prediction
This means MCD is not in general suitable for simulating and analysis of physical processes and structures, to
pressing or similar connecting operations. In addition, it is ensuring the efficient use of resources. By digitally
not easy to simulate the movement of small clamps, locking analyzing, understanding and simulating a product, the
mechanisms etc. performance can be optimized to improve its reliability,
efficiency and performance.
F. Simulation of sensors
Mechatronic Concept Designer does not actually simulate
sensors. It just mimics their functionality. It does not deal
with their physical principles. As stated earlier, they are
normally simulated just like a collision of two parts.
However, this is against the principle of DT. Real sensors
have bugs in certain environments (due to magnetism, fast
movement etc). It is not possible to include this in a
simulation, which could then lead to unexpected errors
while making the prototype. Bugs in sensor measurements
are unfortunately often hard to find. The causes of errors
are usually unpredictable and often lead to incorrect results.
Only after several tests and after perfecting the simulation
is it possible to obtain the prototype, which we wanted to
create in the beginning. It is of course easier to make a DT
than to create an actual technical product. However, a great

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This contribution is supported by project SGS-2022–009.
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