Digital Twin visualization with AR
Augmented Reality, as a promising HMI for smart operators, can be the next step of Digital Twins. This can signify the future of manufacturing and production hand in hand with the human-centric concept of Industry 5.0. At evosoft, we have developed our own demonstration of real-time Digital Twin visualization with AR in Digital Experience showroom.
evosoft Hungary Kft., in a great collaboration with Siemens, has always been well-prepared for the current topics of state-of-the-art technologies of industry due to the valuable competence and development experience acquired over time. Although modern visualization technologies such as AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) haven’t been widely adopted worldwide yet, they could be of great significance in shaping future industrial trends.
Augmented reality is an interactive visual technology that involves the real-time integration of digital information into the user's environment. Unlike virtual reality (VR), which creates completely artificial environments, AR allows users to experience their own real environment digitally augmented with perceived or generated information.
Beyond its benefits in everyday life, there is an increasing potential and demand for the industrial application of augmented reality. AR could represent the next technological step in Human-Machine Interfaces (HMI), enabling unprecedented ergonomics, efficiency and safety levels in operator work – significant factors guiding the future of the industry. By supporting the digitalization processes introduced by Industry 4.0 with augmented reality tools and services, and further enhancing them with the concept of AR-assisted Digital Twin, manufacturing workers can be transformed into smart operators. This is an indispensable step towards achieving Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC), a central concept in Industry 5.0, which involves collaborative robots.
The digitalization procedures introduced by Industry 4.0 have significantly contributed to the spread of cyber-physical systems, which remain an evolving field of science to this day. A promising solution for the next step could be the concept of AR-assisted Digital Twin, which enhances the functional basis of virtual representations with augmented reality tools and services. AR is a natural, flexible, and richly capable data display technology that the industry considers an advancement in human-machine interfaces (HMI), making it an extremely popular research topic both in industry and academia.
The combination of augmented reality and Digital Twin technologies could be a particularly important trend in future industries, as it could prove useful at every stage of manufacturing systems and product lifecycle. Furthermore, it could play a significant role in transforming factory workers into smart operators due to its advantages, marking the first technological step towards human cyber-physical systems. Collaborative human-robot task sharing, intuitive robot control methods, visual robot programming, gesture-based, or even hands-free robot interaction – such as voice recognition or head movement and eye contact tracking – are all interaction methods made possible by augmented reality. These intuitive and versatile control techniques enable the use of non-expert operators or even those with disabilities. The use of AR-supported Digital Twins, along with the possibilities they offer and the personalized, flexible and ergonomic work environments they can create, supports human-robot collaboration and human-centric intelligent manufacturing, which is a key principle of Industry 5.0.
Beyond industrial purposes, considering ergonomics, comfort, and efficiency of human activities, and extending them to the Society 5.0 human-centric perspective, are also crucial factors. Therefore, the concept of improving the quality of life through modern technological solutions further enhances the global relevance of augmented reality across various application domains.
Our industrial solution highlights the significance and achievements of AR.: It enables an AR application designed for the visualization and operation of a 3D model of a triaxial warehouse robot. This robot is virtually commissioned but not physically deployed, existing only within the digital twin of a manufacturing product line. The software we developed integrates the virtual object of the warehouse robot in the operator’s real environment and aligns it with the physical infrastructure which it belongs. Beyond visualization it communicates with the PLC via a network connection and executes its commands.
#AR #VR #DigitalTwin #ARassistedDigitalTwin #CyberPhysicalSystems #HumanRobotCollaboration #Industry5.0 #Society5.0
