Synchronizing physical factory and its digital twin through an IIoT middleware: a case study

Digital twin (DT) is the virtual clone of a factory representing its static and dynamic aspects (e.g., processes, systems, products, etc.) in detail. Among the significant challenges that manufacturing company has to face to implement the DT, one of the most demanding is applying an appropriate software infrastructure, which would enable synchronization of the physical factory with its DT. In this case, it was possible to exploit wide range of capabilities of DT in its full potential. In particular, the DT was used in different conditions to enable various operations within the shop floor, to simulate and assess the factory's performance. To support companies in addressing this challenge, this paper presents a potential solution, based on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) middleware, that implements a fully dual-way synchronization between the real and virtual worlds. A case study was carried out to investigate the possibilities to implement the solution. To demonstrate correctness and validity of the approach, tests were carried out in the laboratories of Flexible Manufacturing Systems, Robotics Demo Centre and ProtoLab of Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech).