No abstract

No abstract

Virtual commissioning (VC) is a method used to virtually visualize and test production systems, control logic and material flows. The focus of this paper is to further extend this concept using Virtual Reality (VR). The introduction of VR in VC enhances the concept by adding a more realistic visualization and movement tracking which extends the possibilities of its validation. The changes to the validation aspect are mainly due to the fact that it is now possible to interact with the running virtual production in a realistic and intuitive way. The interaction gives designers and operators a new possibility to go from being observers to actors in the design phase. They are now able to validate the production system, test security protocols and validate the human interaction with the system, using VR.

In order to adapt to stricter system delivery and integration requirements, virtual commissioning (VC) has become a well adopted practice in industry. VC is getting increasingly integrated into the overall engineering process, where the control software is continuously tested with the virtual plant model. At the same time, collaborative and intelligent automation systems are becoming an important part of modern industries. In these complex systems, humans perform operations together with collaborative robots, intelligent machines and smart tools. However, performing VC of such complex, distributed and heterogeneous systems demands new ways of interfacing different hardware and software components. This paper discusses the requirements, process and results of integrated virtual commissioning of an industrial collaborative and intelligent automation system usecase. Moreover, this industrial use-case illustrates challenges and exemplifies the need to use the next generation Robot Operating System (ROS2) due to its robust communication layer as well as easy integration with smart devices and algorithms.