A navigation framework for digital twins of factories based on building information modeling

Abstract

Digital Twins are a central component in the concept of a modern, Industry 4.0-ready virtual factory. In order to optimize movement paths that emerge during the simulated operation of such a virtual factory, a Digital Twin of a factory has to include a navigation framework that supports movements for humans, as well as autonomous robots. One possible foundation for such a framework are Building Information Models that include details about the buildings' 3D geometry and semantic annotations. In this publication, we propose a framework that allows for effortless inclusion of Building Information Models and factory equipment as well as a plugin system for a variety of spatial representations (e.g. regular grids or navigation meshes).