Session: 03-12-01: Digital Manufacturing Process Simulation and Validation

Paper Number: 112791

112791 - Conceptual Architecture of Digital Twin With Human-in-the-Loop-Based Smart Manufacturing 

The fourth industrial revolution is related to the increasing digitization and linkage of goods, products, value chains, and business models. Smart manufacturing (SM) has the goal of finding near-optimal, sustainable, and resilient solutions to various manufacturing problems, regardless of the specific manufacturing industry. It is based on the global connection of people, things, and machines. We are in a new era of data analysis, connectivity, and automation by connecting devices and sensors to the internet. The term Internet of Things has spread along with the vision of a world instrumented with intelligent inputs and outputs that can communicate through internet data and technologies. This provided great opportunities for innovation and progress, previously unattainable in such a dimension.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) blazes the trail to a better understanding of the manufacturing process, thus enabling efficient and sustainable production. In addition, as one of the leading technologies of I4.0, Cyber-Physical System (CPS) is responsible for the link between virtual and physical spaces by integrating networking, computing, and storage, making an interactive industrial environment possible, and creating smart factories. Metaverse is another new type of Internet application and social form incorporating various new technologies. It provides an immersive experience based on augmented reality technology, creates a virtual replica of the real world using digital twin technology, and builds an economic system based on blockchain technology. It allows each user to produce content and edit the world.

SM is based on a vision that automation would be the future and human involvement needs to be minimized. Current situation is that many traditional manufacturing processes have been automated, i.e., software and systems control the process, humans are being excluded. However, many new manufacturing processes are now on the market that are not automated and fully controlled by systems and software. They often require human involvement.

This paper proposes a conceptual architecture of digital twin- and human-in-the-loop- based smart manufacturing (DH-SM). Our proposed architecture integrates cyber, physical, and human spaces, where digital twins and human wisdom can be combined to make collaborative decisions for further enhancing manufacturing efficacy. This will enable real-time, collaborative decision-making between humans, software, and machines. For example, when evaluating a new product design, information about the product’s physical features, manufacturing requirements, and customer demands must be processed concurrently. Moreover, the DH-SM architecture can create an immersive environment that allows customers to be effectively involved in the manufacturing process. The DH-M architecture is well fitted to those relatively new manufacturing processes, such as metal additive manufacturing, since they can benefit using digital twins, data analytics, and artificial intelligence for monitoring and controlling those processes. The proposed DH-SM will enable manufacturers to leverage the existing cyber-physical system and extended reality technologies to generate immersive experiences for end-users, operators, managers, and stakeholders. A use case of wire + arc additive manufacturing is discussed to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed architecture. Relevant development and implementation challenges are also discussed.

Presenting Author: Guodong Shao EL, NIST

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Gordon Shao is a Computer Scientist in the Systems Integration Division of the Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He manages the Digital Twin for Advanced Manufacturing Project. He is a technical expert of standards committees including ISO TC 184 SC 4 and ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 41 working on digital twin related standards and a co-chair of the Digital Twin Interoperability Task Group (DTITG) within the Industry IoT Consortium (IIC).

Authors:

Duck Bong Kim Tennessee Technological University
Mahdi Sadeqi Bajestani Tennessee Technological University
Guodong Shao EL, NIST
Albert Jones NIST
Sang Do Noh Sungkyunkwan University