Digital twin in manufacturing: conceptual framework and case studies
A robust research paper focuses on the question: "How does the digital twin concept support the realisation of an integrated, flexible and collaborative manufacturing environment as one of the goals projected by the fourth industrial revolution?”
The paper outlines the theoretical ability of digital twins to unlock the benefits of Industry 4.0, by delivering the connectivity and integration that is currently hampered by existing manufacturing systems: centralised control structures, heterogeneity of data, and proprietary manufacturing vendor products.
The paper also contains three case studies with a decent discussion of the process but limited results data:
- Festo cyber-physical smart factory
- A pharmaceutical continuous crystallization system, and
- A digital twin of electric motors.
Why it’s relevant to Nextspace
The paper is relevant to Nextspace Partners as it provides independent verification of the critical nature of issues addressed by the Nextspace platform:
- The core challenge of scalable data interoperability and data management
- Challenges of data accuracy, completeness and ongoing validation
- The need for an explicitly defined ontology
Nextspace delivers on the need for easier and more skilled human-machine interaction and collaboration.
