A Prototype of the Digital Twin of an Aerospace Industrial Production Line

In recent years, manufacturing companies have become more flexible and reconfigurable to adapt to new manufacturing paradigms and market demands. Simulation technology, which is one of the enablers of Industry 4.0, is usually used to evaluate the performance of manufacturing lines to predict their response against some manufacturing scenario. The concept of a digital twin has gained popularity in the last years. A digital twin is defined as a virtual system connected to the physical system that replicates its behavior. In this paper, a conceptual design of a digital twin-based manufacturing system is established. This includes the hierarchy of virtual elements, the relations between physical and virtual elements, and the definition of the data flow and type. A discrete event simulator has been developed to act as the digital twin of an anodizing treatment line. The simulator is connected to company systems through a neutral interface that feeds the simulator with the current manufacturing plan. The standalone digital twin has been validated using real data and allows one to perform what-if simulations in real time.