Valentin Stegmaier

Zusammenfassung

Vacuum handling systems are widely used in production systems. Most of the systems key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant for industry 4.0 use cases can be derived from its vacuum level characteristics. Vacuum suction cups are key components of vacuum gripping systems and have a significant influence on the system behavior. For modelling suction cups, mainly constant volume chambers are currently used. However, these do not represent the suction cups dynamic behavior exactly enough. Therefore, a novel model is presented allowing the vacuum curve simulation mainly based on the force-displacement characteristic curve. The presented model is validated in an industrially relevant scenario.

Zusammenfassung

Vacuum handling systems are widely used in production systems. Most of the systems key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant for industry 4.0 use cases can be derived from its vacuum level characteristics. Vacuum suction cups are key components of vacuum gripping systems and have a significant influence on the system behavior. For modelling suction cups, mainly constant volume chambers are currently used. However, these do not represent the suction cups dynamic behavior exactly enough. Therefore, a novel model is presented allowing the vacuum curve simulation mainly based on the force-displacement characteristic curve. The presented model is validated in an industrially relevant scenario.

Zusammenfassung

A key performance indicator for sensors in production systems is their accuracy. In order to respond to the flexible requirements posed to production systems, there are currently two possibilities to realize the needed accuracy. Either the sensors can be changed frequently, so that the lowest still sufficient accuracy can always be achieved or the production system can be equipped directly with highly accurate sensors. These two options come with high costs, originating from the manual effort and the proportionality of accuracy and cost for most of the commonly used sensors. Industrially used resistance-based sensors such as pressure, force or temperature sensors represent a special case here, because their inaccuracy traces back to few major sources. To eliminate some of these sources or to decrease their impacts, instance-specific characteristics are used in an accuracy model provided by an intelligent Digital Twin. Using varying accuracy models provides different levels of accuracy. The presented concept provides the needed accuracy permanently or as a service for periods the production system needs the higher accuracy, called Accuracy-as-a-Service (AaaS), benefiting setup efficiency, costs and flexibility. To validate the presented concept, the proposed model is used for an analog pressure sensor in a fluidic test setup. The control unit of the system is provided with a standard model as well as a more accurate one. It is demonstrated in the paper how the usage of the individual model can improve the accuracy of a special sensor significantly by a factor of four.

Zusammenfassung

Digital Twins, which serve as virtual representations, are becoming increasingly important to meet the needs of future industrial automation. Digital Twins are mostly created for specific use cases, facing various requirements e.g. reliable intellectual property protection, interoperability, flexibility, or extendability during implementation. For this purpose, decisions regarding structure and technology have to be made before implementation. In this paper, we discuss relevant requirements based on a proposed procedure for the derivation of project-specific intelligent Digital Twin implementations. The influences and correlations of project requirements are discussed concerning the choice of intelligent Digital Twins implementation structure and technology. In addition, the paper outlines their advantages and disadvantages. The proposed procedure is exemplarily illustrated using an intelligent Digital Twin utilized for a modular offshore-platform producing green hydrogen and derivatives.

Zusammenfassung

Behavior models in the Digital Twin are relevant to many use cases such as digital product development, virtual system optimization or virtual commissioning. However, such behavior models are structured in the literature according to different criteria and levels, which complicates the selection of the correct properties for specific use cases. One criterion that is discussed very differently is the modeling depth of behavior models. This paper presents different approaches to structure behavior models from literature and introduces a new concept with focus on the modeling depth. These levels of modeling depth, as well as the characteristics of the different modeling depths, are then illustrated using a representative industry scenario.

Zusammenfassung

A key performance indicator for sensors in production systems is their accuracy. In order to respond to the flexible requirements posed to production systems, there are currently two possibilities to realize the needed accuracy. Either the sensors can be changed frequently, so that the lowest still sufficient accuracy can always be achieved or the production system can be equipped directly with highly accurate sensors. These two options come with high costs, originating from the manual effort and the proportionality of accuracy and cost for most of the commonly used sensors. Industrially used resistance-based sensors such as pressure, force or temperature sensors represent a special case here, because their inaccuracy traces back to few major sources. To eliminate some of these sources or to decrease their impacts, instance-specific characteristics are used in an accuracy model provided by an intelligent Digital Twin. Using varying accuracy models provides different levels of accuracy. The presented concept provides the needed accuracy permanently or as a service for periods the production system needs the higher accuracy, called Accuracy-as-a-Service (AaaS), benefiting setup efficiency, costs and flexibility. To validate the presented concept, the proposed model is used for an analog pressure sensor in a fluidic test setup. The control unit of the system is provided with a standard model as well as a more accurate one. It is demonstrated in the paper how the usage of the individual model can improve the accuracy of a special sensor significantly by a factor of four.

Zusammenfassung

Neben Herausforderungen bei der Erstellung bieten sich Komponentenherstellern durch den Digitalen Zwilling viele potenzielle Mehrwerte. Auf die Anwendungsfälle, um die entsprechenden Mehrwerte zu realisieren, soll im Folgenden näher eingegangen werden. Für eine effiziente Erstellung aus Sicht des Komponentenherstellers wird ein Konzept präsentiert. Dieses nutzt bestehende Informationen und erstellt häufig fehlende Verhaltensmodelle automatisiert. Zur Veranschaulichung potenzieller Mehrwerte der Verhaltensmodelle wird der Luftverbrauch eines Vakuum-Greifsystems beispielhaft analysiert.

Zusammenfassung

Während der Engineering- und Betriebsphase modularer Produktionssysteme entstehen zunehmend Modelle. Der Digitale Zwilling kann diese Modelle für Anwendungen wie die virtuelle Inbetriebnahme, Optimierung, Prognose oder betriebsparallele Simulation zur Verfügung stellen. Durch unvorhersehbare Veränderungen in der Betriebsphase verschlechtert sich die Realitätsnähe der Modelle des Digitalen Zwillings, bspw. aufgrund von Anforderungsänderungen, neuen Anwendungen oder sich ändernden Umwelteinflüssen wie etwa Temperatur- oder Druckschwankungen und eine Modelladaption wird notwendig. Die Adaption der Modelle des Digitalen Zwillings weist einige Herausforderungen auf, die in diesem Beitrag aufgezeigt werden. Um diesen Herausforderungen zu begegnen und dem Adaptionsaufwand während der Betriebsphase entgegenzuwirken, wird ein Konzept präsentiert, welches es dem Digitalen Zwilling ermöglicht, die Abweichung zur Realität zu erkennen und sich durch eine anschließende Modelladaption realitätsnah zu halten.

Zusammenfassung

The use of Digital Twins is versatile and offers a wide range of advantages. However, the creation is often a manual process and therefore very time-consuming and cost-intensive. The creation of behavior models stands out as particularly time-consuming. Therefore, this paper deals with the creation of Digital Twins from the perspective of an industrial component manufacturer, with a particular focus on the creation of behavior models. An automatic approach based on libraries is presented. This concept, in particular for the creation of behavior models, is validated in an industry-relevant application scenario and compared with the manual creation process.

Zusammenfassung

Increasing productivity, as well as flexibility, is required for the industrial production sector. To meet these challenges, concepts in the field of “Industry 4.0” are arising, such as the concept of Digital Twins. Vacuum handling systems are a widespread technology for material handling in industry and face the same challenges and opportunities. In this field, a key issue is the lack of Digital Twins containing behavior models for vacuum handling systems and their components in different applications and use cases. Therefore, the object of this paper is to propose a novel concept for modeling and simulating the fluidic behavior of pneumatic vacuum ejectors as key components of vacuum handling systems. In order to increase the simulation accuracy, the concept can access instance‐specific data of the used asset instead of object‐specific data. The model and the data are part of the Digital Twins of pneumatic vacuum ejectors, which shall be able to be combined with other components to represent a Digital Twin of entire vacuum handling systems. The proposed model is validated in an experimental test set‐up and in an industrial application delivering sufficiently accurate results.