Simulated-based methodology for the interface configuration of cyber-physical production systems

Abderrahim Ait-Alla, Markus Kreutz, Daniel Rippel, Michael Lütjen and Michael Freitag

International Journal of Production Research, 2021, vol. 59, issue 17, 5388-5403

Abstract: Besides managing accruing data in production systems, Digital Twins provide additional services like the simulation or control of production systems. The Digital Twin and its real-world physical counterpart need to be interconnected using sensors and actuators to enable such services. This article proposes a simulation-based method to design and evaluate such an interface. Applying concepts from the area of software-in-the-loop, it proposes the use of a so-called Physical Twin: a simulation model which mimics the abilities of the physical system but allows simulation-based experiments to optimise the interface. After presenting the general approach, the article provides an application example of the proposed procedure. A Digital and a Physical Twin are implemented for an application scenario and connected using a simple TCP/IP interface. By varying the number of sensors as well as considering component breakdowns in the Physical Twin, this setup allows evaluating different configurations in terms of production performance. The evaluation confirms that configurations with more sensors result in higher production performance of the system. However, a saturation of the performance gain is also observable when exceeding a certain number of sensors. Therefore, determining the optimal configuration is vital to optimise the interface from a financial point of view.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00207543.2020.1778209 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tprsxx:v:59:y:2021:i:17:p:5388-5403

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/TPRS20

DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2020.1778209

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Production Research is currently edited by Professor A. Dolgui

More articles in International Journal of Production Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().