Framework for capturing the Digital Twin
The system-wide networking of the shopfloor is currently a much discussed topic, both in research and in the industrial environment. Thus, in present projects of the ISW, a framework has been created, which is able to connect different machines quickly and easily. It is possible to dynamically add and deactivate machine tools and production plants by means of a message-based architecture of the software. Adapters for different communication protocols are available for the manufacturer-independent integration of different controls. Especially OPC UA as a manufacturer-independent communication mechanism contributes significantly to this freedom. But also specific protocols like ADS by Beckhoff are supported. At any time it is possible to add new protocols to the toolkit.
Processing of captured data
After the production plants have been networked, all data are provided centrally. At this time, these data have not yet left the company network. If it is desired, however, that these data should leave the company network, the central data retention enables a simple connection to third-party systems like current IIot platforms or clout data storages. But for monitoring or simpler analyses, a network-internal further processing is possible. In both cases, acces to the live production data is provided by the well-defined interfaces of the system.
Demonstrator SPS IPC Drives 2017
A demonstration of the data flow was presented by the ISW at the SPS IPC Drives trade fair 2017 in Nuremberg. All trade fair demonstrators were linked via the framework described above. It should be emphasized that the networked systems were of different nature. From 3D-printers and classic machine tools to TSN-based demonstrators and hardware-in-the-loop simulations, all current technologies are connected and can be accessed via one central system. The availability of the live data of all demonstrators was shown by visualizing and animating the complete exhibition stand in the game engine Unity.
