Shaping the digital twin for design and production engineering

Benjamin Schleich (1) , Nabil Anwer (2) , Luc Mathieu (2) , Sandro Wartzack (1)

1 FAU - Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg = University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
2 LURPA - Laboratoire Universitaire de Recherche en Production Automatisée

The digitalization of manufacturing fuels the application of sophisticated virtual product models, which are referred to as digital twins, throughout all stages of product realization. Particularly, more realistic virtual models of manufactured products are essential to bridge the gap between design and manufacturing and to mirror the real and virtual worlds. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive reference model based on the concept of Skin Model Shapes, which serves as a digital twin of the physical product in design and manufacturing. In this regard, model conceptualization, representation, and implementation as well as applications along the product life-cycle are addressed. In today's highly competitive markets, the ambitions for shortening the time to market and for increasing the product development performance fuel the application of sophisticated virtual product models, which are frequently referred to as digital twins. Enabled by the digitalization of manufacturing, cyber-physical production systems, model-based system engineering, and a growing endeavour for data gathering and processing, these models are increasingly enriched with production and operation data. Moreover, they allow the efficient prediction of the effects of product and process development as well as operating and servicing decisions on the product behaviour without the need for costly and time-expensive physical mock-ups [1-3]. Particularly in design, such realistic product models are essential to allow the early and efficient assessment of the consequences of design decisions on the quality and function of mechanical products. However, current approaches to the implementation of digital twins lack of a conceptual basis, which hinders the applicability of the digital twin vision to various activities in design and production engineering. Motivated by this need, this paper proposes a comprehensive reference model, which serves as a digital twin of the physical product in design and production engineering. In this regard, important model properties, such as scalability, interoperability, expansibility, and fidelity, as well as different operations on this reference model along the product life-cycle, such as composition, decomposition, conversion, and evaluation are addressed. Moreover, the application of this reference model to geometrical variations management is highlighted. The paper is structured as follows. In the next section, the vision of the digital twin and its evolution is reviewed. After that, a comprehensive reference model for the digital twin is introduced, which is then applied to geometrical variations management. Finally, a conclusion and an outlook are given.

Mots clés: Design; Tolerancing; Digital Twin

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]; Informatique [cs]; Mathématiques [math]

Benjamin Schleich, Nabil Anwer, Luc Mathieu, Sandro Wartzack. Shaping the digital twin for design and production engineering. CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology, 2017, 66 (1), ⟨10.1016/j.cirp.2017.04.040⟩. ⟨hal-01513846⟩