Model-Based Specification of Robotic Digital Twins

Abstract

In future smart manufacturing scenarios, automation and semi-automation of production and assembly tasks can be reached through the use of robotic systems. This allows creating flexible production changes and automated production of small batch sizes. To allow for constant monitoring of these adaptations and to foster the optimization of smart factories, digital twins are of importance. However, the absence of systematic development approaches for robotic systems coherently considering their digital twins, limits the potential for analysis and monitoring, and thereby for runtime safety assurance. This paper proposes a model-based approach to systematically define and analyze robotic systems and their digital twins already in early stages of development. We illustrate the applicability of the approach with case examples from industry automation.