Industrial Collaborative Robot Digital Twin integration and Control Using Robot Operating System

Abstract

Universal solutions for industrial robot integration are urgent requirements for companies looking for machine interconnectivity, and tailor-made manufacturing systems design. These solutions must be supported by modular and open-source components and Extended Reality (XR) interfaces. Robot Operating System (ROS) has proven to be a reliable, interoperable and modular standard for industrial robot integration. Digital Twins (DT) of industrial equipment and processes offer a solid base to develop innovative digital tools relying on synchronization between physical and digital entities and the setup of XR interfaces for teleoperation and programming. This work presents the integration of the OMRON TM5-9000 collaborative industrial robot into the IVAR laboratory DT system at Tallinn University of Technology. By using Unity3D game engine and developing a ROS package for the specific machine, the digital model of the collaborative robot is integrated into the existing twin, synchronized with the real counterpart, and controlled by a remote user interface.

Keywords

• virtual reality
• collaborative robots
• robot operating system
• digital twins