A digital twin approach to support a multi-task industrial robot operation using design of experiments

Abstract

The manufacturing industry recognizes drilling operations as a significant portion of production, often accounting for a substantial part of overall costs. In the transformative wave of Industry 4.0, new technologies have emerged, presenting remarkable opportunities to enhance machining processes. Thus, this study integrates digital twins (DT) technology to refine drilling operations. Within this framework, a robot actively executed drilling tasks, with the DT closely monitoring and regulating the drilling speed. This research further established a connectivity bridge that facilitates synchronizing the virtual system with the operational process. The article presents a design of experiments in a virtual simulation space to analyze the impact of various parameters. This approach aimed to pinpoint the robot joints wielding the most significant influence on the comprehensive drilling operations sequence. The findings underscored that the J4 joint of the FANUC robot model M-16iB/20 stood out as a critical contributor to the process, influencing it by an impressive margin of 16%. This research demonstrates a promising avenue for harnessing digital twin technology to streamline and optimize manufacturing production, setting a precedent for future explorations in the field.