Simulation and virtual commissioning of a toy car production line in a digital factory

Abstract

The Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics at the Czech Technical University in Prague is a research facility focusing on Industry 4.0. One of the research topics at the institute discusses virtual commissioning of a digital factory using a testbed in the laboratory. The testbed represents a toy car production line with five workstations equipped with KUKA robots and a Montrac transportation system. The master's thesis aims to transfer the physical installation into a virtual simulation and create a digital factory by virtually commissioning the production line.

This master's thesis had five main objectives. First, a simulation model was designed in Tecnomatix Process Simulate of Siemens. Second, each robot in the production line received a data interface to execute robotic operations. Third, a virtual PLC, created by Siemens software TIA Portal and PLC Sim, initiated virtual commissioning of the simulated installation. Fourth, an external interface was created in the PLC to allow an above-laying system to execute production commands. At last, a human-machine interface was implemented to control the production line.

The approach of virtual commissioning allows eliminating errors early in the manufacturing process without using valuable time and significant material costs in the physical world. Virtual commissioning is an integral part of the digital factory concept exploring new production set-ups and business models that adapt to a changing market and are more efficient in production time and costs.