A digital “mini-factory” that will save costs, energy and materials

It looks like science fiction. But in Syntv it became a reality.

on a movie clip You can see hereYou first see a robot moving through the institute’s advanced physical production cell. A “factory factory” for the automated delivery of everything from auto parts to pipe fittings and electronics.

Then you see a virtual copy of the same robot repeating the same process in a virtual copy of the same lab.

The screens form the visible part of the newly developed “dual digital technology”. On screen, it would eventually be possible to try and fail to find good production facilities to The factory has been built.

Detects problems in advance

Making mistakes on screen is much cheaper than having to deal with them when the plant is present in a physical sense, explains researcher Torbjørn Langedahl Leirmo.

The visualization solution will enable testing of imagined designs for production facilities and processes before they are put into practice. In this way, engineers will be able to see, among other things, if the planned robots will encounter physical obstacles. Or whether the robots would have to take additional, time-consuming laps to prevent such collisions.

When physical production equipment is installed in factories, it can be connected to the digital twin. Continuous retrieval of information about what is happening can be used to predict how processes will evolve over time. In this way, data from real production can be used to gain new knowledge and insight into operations.

“Twin” is full of algorithms

Screenshots only make up the “surface” of the digital twin of which they are a part.

In addition to the system, there are algorithms that will enable real robots to learn from historical data and from information in real time. This allows for cost savings, reduced energy use and reduced scrap production, which in turn will reduce consumption of valuable materials, says Torbjørn Langedahl Leirmo.

The article was first published on Gemini