Virtualization of Production Using Digital Twin

Technology
2nd Martin Juhas
1st Igor Halenar
Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava
Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava
Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava
Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava
Trnava, Slovakia
Trnava, Slovakia
martin_juhas@stuba.sk
igor.halenar@stuba.sk
4th Dmitrii Borkin
3rd Bohuslava Juhasova
Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava
Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava
Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava
Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava
Trnava, Slovakia
Trnava, Slovakia
dmitrii.borkin@stuba.sk
bohuslava.juhasova@stuba.sk

Abstract—The contribution deals with current situation in priorities of the present moment [9], [12].
modern manufacturing enterprises, which is affected by digital
virtualization of different parts of the production process. The
II. THEORETICAL FOUNDATION AND RELATED WORK
overview part of this article points to the fact, that wide
informatization of all areas causes substitution of real elements The basic prerequisite for the existence of such a system
and relationships between them with their digital, often virtual is the claim that the creation of the digital twin itself is
images, in real practice. Key characteristics of the systems related to the existence of a complex physical and functional
implemented using digital twin technology along with essential description of device, product or process, containing
conditions for intelligent products deployment were identified information useful in all stages of the life cycle [11].
across many published studies. The goal is to outline an option
for the production system realization using digital twin
technology as a supplement of standardized concepts for
Industry 4.0. The main resulting idea leads to the statement
that the current trend of implementation of the new
technologies and ways of communication between industrial
facilities erases the boundaries between the real environment
and the virtual world. The final part of the paper is devoted to
implementing the proposed concept using the AVEVA
Wonderware software tool.

Keywords—communication, digital twin, Industry 4.0,

simulation, virtualization, AVEVA Wonderware

I. INTRODUCTION
The draft concept of a system using virtualization was
first presented at the University of Michigan in 2003 [15].
For practical implementation, there is a need for modern
enterprises that are supposed to implement production in line
with Industry 4.0 standards. They are represented by Smart
Factories (SF) linked to global production networks.
Such production lines are digital and formed by closely
combing robotics, sensor networks and automation networks,
along with their integration into cloud networks and using
progressive and complex technologies such as Big Data
processing and process virtualization. The existence of this
form of digitized production together with process
virtualization rests on the development and subsequent
application of new technologies and production methods into
practice.
Although the implementation of such systems, which
have a virtual image in the virtual environment, is highly
topical and desirable and has undisputed advantages, the
practical realization is still in the initial stage of
development. Leading technology companies point to the
emergence of virtualized digital twins as one of the research
This publication was written with the financial support of the VEGA
agency in the frame of the project 1/0232/18 “Using the methods of multi-
objective optimization in production processes control”.
Fig. 1. Exchange of data and information by process virtualization
Such a comprehensive description in virtualized form
represents the virtual existence of a particular device,
product, or process. Modelling of complex structures is
currently possible mainly thanks to the already mentioned
digitization of production together with increased computing
power of computers. From the perspective of the process
simulation field such modelling level can be considered a
further step in modelling, simulation and process
optimization [2], [7] and [10]. However, the term "Digital
Twin" cannot be understood as softly one, a best by complex,
model of a product or process, but a set of cooperating data
components, sessions and simulation models and their
relations, as is shown in Fig. 1.
This system must have an appropriate structure for the
intended purpose and it develops throughout the product life
cycle [11]. The set of created simulation procedures in

978-1-7281-0702-8/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE

addition to the representative features, has the ability to From available literature [6], [18] it is possible to
predict the states and properties of the simulated object, or summarize the necessary conditions for the deployment of
rather the manufacturing process [2]. There are a number of intelligent products and they are depicted in Fig. 2.
articles of authors describing the application of digital twin
technology in various fields [10], [16]. Canendo [1] By expanding these requirements, we can formulate key
describes the problem area of Digital twin in connection with points required to implement for successful realization of
Industrial IoT Devices. Gleassgen and Stargel [13] describe production with possibility of realization of digital twin
in their article the use of digital twin technology in the army technology [6].
to simulate combat vehicles movement in a given area. The
possibilities of communication between the virtualized and
the real environment are described in Schroeder et al.
Moreover, in another article authors describe the possibility
of visualizing digital twin outputs in the Internet
environment in conjunction with the augmented reality [4],
[6].
In principle, the implementation of the digital twin can be
described as the creation of bidirectional relation between
physical objects and a group of virtual models. From this
perspective such a virtual duplicity represents the creation of
a connection between physical elements and their virtual
image, which enables efficient design, production, servicing
and various other activities throughout the product life cycle.
Mainly in the design phase, thanks created digital twins
allow to check the compliance by product specifications with
the design intent and customer requirements.
In practice and in other scientific literature [8], [14],
however, we are faced with the problem of full
implementation of digital twinning technology due to several
problems:
• insufficient synchronization capabilities (real time
synchronization) between physical and digital
environment, without the possibility of creating stable
closed relationships Fig. 2. Key conditions for the intelligent products deployment
• problem of missing sufficiently precise and fine
models necessary to simulate processes at different A. Component identification
levels
For every part in the system (products, services, units)
• insufficient accuracy evaluation of models of real there must be possibility to uniquely and globally identify the
environment component, throughout the product spectrum and throughout
the life of the product. This identification then can be used to
• generally problematic prediction of state of complex pair it with virtual projection. At present, the emerging
systems technologies that are able to meet this demand are mainly
• globally unhandled issues of collecting and two, namely Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and
processing large data blocks (Big Data processing) Electronic Product Code (EPC) [5], [6].

These challenges can only be dealt by creating a reliable B. Data processing

conceptual framework and a comprehensive reference
model for digital twins.
III. IDENTIFICATION OF KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
SYSTEMS IMPLEMENTED USING DIGITAL TWIN TECHNOLOGY
Management of such a complex system requires systems
with significant computing power and, at the present time,
the technologies which are used do not provide adequate
funding. In addition there is a necessity to meet a variety of
system conditions. The important requirements for the
implementation of the system are realization of smart
production process including the intelligent product and the
Internet of Things (IoT) technology into real practice [17],
[18].
Throughout the life of the product in all three phases
(1. design, 2. product maintenance and use, 3. recycling) are
generated number of data. Processing, which means analysis
and synthesis of information in such large databases, is the
task of Big Data.
C. Modeling
During the life cycle of the product it is typically carried
out different variations of the original product and each
variant has its image in digital form – model. Due to the wide
range of phases, there are many product models - system
models, functional models, 3D geometric models, physical
models, production models, usage patterns and so on [6]. It is
important to normalize the creation of these models for
possible interoperability and possibility of communication
between them.
D. Human - machine interface
Designing and implementing a suitable human-computer
interface will ensure that the information in the system is
properly mediated and eliminates problems in processing
large amount of output data by humans. Digital twin can
provide information to all users and to all co-operators
involved in the system and therefore it is necessary to realize
a simple and reliable form of communication.
E. Communication channels and data transmission
The most prominent feature, which is apparent in this
sector is to increase compatibility. The trend is that one
network perform different functions. It can be process and
device management, configuration and data sharing systems.
Another important feature that can be found in industrial
networks is the implementation of Wi-Fi standards in
management, together with the introduction of "smart"
technologies such as IoT and sensory networks.
IV. THE PROPOSAL OF PRODUCTION SYSTEM
REALIZATION USING DIGITAL TWIN TECHNOLOGY
When making any product or system using digital twin
technology, it is important to closely follow the relations and
rules throughout the whole product life cycle (Fig. 3).
Fig. 3. Data related to lifecycle of product
The next design of the digital twin system is for
simplicity primarily concerned with virtualization of the
production process itself, not with virtualization of all
elements.
The system design, shown in the Fig. 4, respects the
above-mentioned principles, based on the assumed
implementation needs and the available literary sources [3].
At the top of the picture, the twin is represented by a real
production process with real values and parameters.
The information about state of physical production
(information about ongoing operations, about state of all
parts, state of all products, about environment etc.) is
collected in real time and are stored in the virtualized part
using communication interface. The virtual part contains
models and images of all components. Virtual part of system
contains models of all parts and relations of physical system.
It is clear from the figure that different virtual images of the
real model need to be taken into account.
Fig. 4. The proposal of production design using virtual twin
The "shadow" virtual twin is the exact image of the
current state of the real system, generated according to
gathered online data. In this case, it is important that there be
sufficient fineness and depth of information about the
controlled system, which has a major effect on the precision
of the virtual image. All system data are centrally stored and
processed in data repository. After the optimization process
outputs are used together with real-time information to create
an optimized model.
Based on the history of states stored in the database using
advanced data mining techniques, it is also possible to find
not only the optimal solution with the possibility of real-time
testing, but also to generate predictive decisions and directly
apply them to the real production process. An important part
is also verification, which may consist of some independent Nowadays this attribute is a standard in every Digital twin or
simulation system, or a further degree of control. MES software. Depending of used communication protocol
(SuiteLink, fastDDE, OPC, OPC UA) it is a native feature of
The implementation of these process virtualization the protocol itself.
principles have been tested in real environment during
experimental running of real production line depicted in Fig.
5.

Fig. 5. The experimental production line – AFB Factory by FESTO

Fig. 6. Schematic representation of the production process
Due to the difficulty of realization of such complex
system as digital twin is, our proposal is focused on creating An essential requirement for virtualization of the
a virtual image of a real production system in initial stage. production process is the simplicity of information
presentation. In online mode is visually shown which parts of
This solution represents the idea of “shadow online the line are active. Other parameters can be tracked
system – Digital twin #1” shown in Fig. 4. Additionally, this depending on the type of performed operation. Moreover, the
solution can be, after some adaptations, concurrently used as ability to start/stop each part of the process (represented by
a digital image created according to DB data – Digital twin its control system) directly in the visualization window, is
#2, as is depicted in Fig. 4. implemented.
Currently, there is a relatively large range of SCADA
systems with more or less similar functions on the market.
For example, GENESIS64 is a complete package of ready-
made SCADA / HMI solutions that provide high
performance through OPC and the use of protocols such as
BACnet and Modbus [20]. The popular solution is iFIX 6.0
(GE Dgital) with support of OPC UA. It contains a large
number of ready-made templates and elements, which
facilitates development of systems for a specific task [21].
As a system for on-line monitoring of production process
a software solution Wonderware by AVEVA is used [19].
This platform can be deployed for solutions focused on tasks
of the industrial automation, including SCADA, HMI
dispatching management, production management systems
(MES) and tools for organizing intelligent manufacturing in
the enterprise. Fig. 7. Visualisation of the production process

Analysed controlled production process is schematically
shown in Fig. 6. The production line is fully automated and
produce two kinds of goods. Finished products are stored in
automated storage. Two primary tasks are solved in our
application:
• initialisation and management of the of product
manufacturing process based on the user's order
• real-time production process monitoring with process
variables saving into database for later analysis
Production process control is provided by PLC together
with separate Manufacturing execution system (MES).
According to Industry 4.0, each individual product is smart.
This property means that product has its own unique RFID
tag, which allows its tracking in each production phase. The
advantage of the Wonderware solution is a possibility of
process values reading directly from PLC and sensors.
The information from production is persistently stored in
the data storage of a database system, which provides the
collection and processing of "alerts" and "accidents" in the
production process. The solution is realised so that it
represents consistency between the model and the process.
This kind of realization provides several advantages:
• intuitive monitoring
• accurate identification of actual problems on the
production line
• possibility to visually review obstacles in production
process
• flexibility of model
• possibility to parameterize objects and sessions in a
model using scripts
 V. CONCLUSION
As mentioned, the design of the manufacturing process
using the digital twin technology in Fig. 8 represents only a
part of lifecycle of product. Ideally, the virtualization process
should include all the states of the product life cycle. The
product should enter virtualized system at the design phase
and all states must have their images within the digital twin
system. It is clear, that such a system is very complex and
difficult to implement in terms of mathematics, technology
and above all sufficient computing power.
Fig. 8. Complexity of the issue of the digital twin
At the present, the application of digital twin technology
in practice is really problematic due to the high complexity
of the simulated systems. Real use of sufficiently precise
models in real production depends on many factors. Firstly,
there must be a possibility to obtain sufficiently accurate data
from sensors to describe the state of real objects. Secondly, a
suitable mathematical apparatus for their processing must be
available, as well as sufficient computational power.
However, it is not currently possible to meet all these
prerequisites.
Thanks to the rapid development of computer
technology, it is, nevertheless, realistic to expect that in the
near future, the implementation of production systems with
digital twin will be possible.
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