Title: Federated composite manufacturing process simulation using digital twins

Authors: Paul Ton de Vrieze; Rushan Arshad; Lai Xu

Addresses: Department of Computing and Informatics, Bournemouth University, Fern Barrow, BH12 5BB Poole, UK ' School of Organisation, Systems and People, Faculty of Business and Law, University of Portsmouth, PO1 3DE Portsmouth, UK ' Department of Computing and Informatics, Bournemouth University, Fern Barrow, BH12 5BB Poole, UK

Abstract: Digital twins play a key role in the operation and management of smart factories. In some cases, an entire production line can be seen as a (composite) digital twin. The production line is often composed of multiple components and corresponding digital twins with their own (simulation) models. In this paper, we propose a federated simulation model that allows the simulation of such a composition to be built from independent digital twins of the components. We provide a formal model as the basis for the approach. The federated simulation provides a building block towards context-aware, autonomous, and adaptive simulation blocks for future factories. The solution is evaluated using proof-of-concept implementations in Python and Kotlin.

Keywords: digital twins; simulation; federated simulation; interoperability; manufacturing; Industry 4.0.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2024.143855

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2024 Vol.21 No.3, pp.179 - 191

Received: 27 Apr 2024
Accepted: 07 Sep 2024
Published online: 10 Jan 2025 *

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