Industrial Robot Digital Twin Control in Shared Context Simulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial automation systems face challenges in accurately simulating the operation of multi-axis industrial robots within their intended context, as vendor-specific simulation platforms provide low-fidelity simulations and require rewriting robot programs, leading to inaccurate testing and increased development time.
Innovation Solution
An industrial control design and testing system that uses physics modeling and aspect metadata to create a virtual real-world simulation of the industrial context, allowing vendor-specific digital twins to be integrated into a common simulation environment, and executing robot programs in their proprietary format, thereby providing a high-fidelity simulation of robot interactions within the automation system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If vendor-specific simulation platforms are used, then robot programs can be executed in proprietary format, but simulation fidelity is low and testing accuracy is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a simulation environment that acts as an intermediary between the vendor-specific robot program and the physical robot system. This environment includes a virtual model of the robot and its workspace, along with a physics engine that accurately simulates gravitational forces, collisions, and material properties. The robot program executes in this high-fidelity virtual environment, allowing accurate testing without directly controlling the physical robot, thus resolving the contradiction between maintaining proprietary program execution and achieving high simulation fidelity.
2Productivity
If vendor-specific simulation platforms are used, then robot programs can be executed, but program rewriting is required and development time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal simulation environment that can execute robot programs in their original proprietary format while supporting multiple robot vendors and application types. The system maintains compatibility with vendor-specific programming interfaces and data formats, allowing the same robot program to be tested across different virtual environments without modification. This multi-functional platform eliminates the need for program rewriting while accommodating various robot systems, thus improving productivity without sacrificing ease of operation.
3Speed
If low-fidelity simulation is used, then simulation execution is faster, but interaction accuracy with industrial context is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent dynamically adjusts simulation parameters based on the specific testing requirements. For scenarios requiring high interaction accuracy, the system activates detailed physics models including gravitational forces, collision detection, and material properties. For less critical operations, the system can reduce physics calculation intensity to maintain faster execution speeds. This parameter adjustment allows the simulation to adapt between speed and accuracy modes, resolving the contradiction between execution speed and interaction accuracy.
Data Source
AI summary
An industrial control design and testing system allows vendor-specific digital twins of industrial robots to be imported into a vendor-agnostic simulation platform so that coordinated operation of the robots within the context of a larger automation system can be simulated and observed. Rather than requiring a designer to re-write the robot program in a format understandable by the simulation system, the design and testing system can link to instances of the vendor-specific robot simulation platforms to facilitate execution of the actual robot programs that will be installed and executed on the corresponding physical robots. This accurately simulates operation of the robots in a manner that requires less development work on the part of the designer and allows the robot's surrounding environment to be modeled and simulated more accurately than would be the case using a simulation platform specific to a particular robot vendor.