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In today's industry, the fourth industrial revolution is underway, characterized by the integration of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and big data. One of the key pillars of this revolution is the technology of digital twin, which is rapidly gaining importance in various industries. However, the concept of digital twins is often misunderstood or misused as a buzzword, leading to confusion in its definition and applications. This observation inspired the authors of this paper to create their own demonstration applications that allow the control of both the real and virtual systems through automatic two-way communication and mutual influence in context of digital twins. The paper aims to demonstrate the use of digital twin technology aimed at discrete manufacturing events in two case studies. In order to create the digital twins for these case studies, the authors used technologies as Unity, Game4Automation, Siemens TIA portal, and Fishertechnik models. The first case study involves the creation of a digital twin for a production line model, while the second case study involves the virtual extension of a warehouse stacker using a digital twin. These case studies will form the basis for the creation of pilot courses for Industry 4.0 education and can be further modified for the development of Industry 4.0 educational materials and technical practice. In conclusion, selected technologies are affordable, which makes the presented methodologies and educational studies accessible to a wide range of researchers and solution developers tackling the issue of digital twins, with a focus on discrete manufacturing events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of Digital Twin is of fundamental importance to meet the main requirements of Industry 4.0. Among the standards currently available to realize Digital Twins there is the Digital Twins Definition Language. Digital Twin requires exchange of data with the real system it models and with other applications that use the digital replica of the system. In the context of Industry 4.0, a reference standard for an interoperable exchange of information between applications, is Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture. The authors believe that interoperability between Digital Twins and Open Platform Communications Unified Architectures communication standard should be enabled. For this reason, the main goal of this paper is to allow a Digital Twin based on the Digital Twins Definition Language to exchange data with any applications compliant to the Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture. A proposal about the mapping from Digital Twins Definition Language to the Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture will be presented. In order to verify the feasibility of the proposal, an implementation has been made by the authors, and its description will be introduced in the paper. Furthermore, the main results of the validation process accomplished on the basis of this implementation will be given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 is moving forward under technology upgrades, utilizing information technology to improve the intelligence of the industry, whereas Industry 5.0 is value-driven, aiming to focus on essential societal needs, values, and responsibility. The manufacturing industry is currently moving towards the integration of productivity enhancements and sustainable human employment. Such a transformation has deeply changed the human–machine interaction (HMI), among which digital twin (DT) and extended reality (XR) are two cutting-edge technologies. A manufacturing DT offers an opportunity to simulate, monitor, and optimize the machine. In the meantime, XR empowers HMI in the industrial field. This paper presents an XR application framework for DT-based services within a manufacturing context. This work aims to develop a technological framework to improve the efficiency of the XR application development and the usability of the XR-based HMI systems. We first introduce four layers of the framework, including the perception layer with the physical machine and its ROS-based simulation model, the machine communication layer, the network layer containing three kinds of communication middleware, and the Unity-based service layer creating XR-based digital applications. Subsequently, we conduct the responsiveness test for the framework and describe several XR industrial applications for a DT-based smart crane. Finally, we highlight the research challenges and potential issues that should be further addressed by analyzing the performance of the whole framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research proposes the implementation of an architecture for industrial process monitoring and control for a manufacturing execution system (MES) using an immersive digital twin (DT). For the design of the proposal, cyber–physical systems (CPS), MES, robotics, the Internet of Things, augmented reality, virtual reality, and open platform communication-unified architecture (OPC UA) communication protocols were used to integrate these technologies and enhance the functionalities of the DT by providing greater performance. The proposed work is implemented in an Industry 4.0 laboratory that is composed of Festo Cyber–Physical Factory and CP-Lab stations. The implementation of the architecture is based on ISO 23247, where the following requirements were considered for the design of DTs: (1) observable attributes and 3D design and visualization of all physical production lines in all of their stages, (2) a communication entity through the OPC UA protocol for the collection of state changes of manufacturing elements, (3) a DT entity where digital models are modeled and updated based on the collected data, and (4) user entities through the use of AR and VR to make manufacturing more efficient. The experimental results showed that the architecture enables interoperability between different platforms and control subsystems. It allows for the detection and diagnosis of problems during the execution of the production line; in addition, the high-fidelity simulation and AR and VR environments provided by the DT with data obtained in real time can improve the accuracy and efficiency of manufacturing through a more detailed analysis of the process, providing advantages such as interactive creation for customized products and continuous innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital twin technology can be considered as an innovation accelerator. By providing a live copy of physical systems, digital twins bring to the table numerous advantages such as accelerated business processes, enhanced productivity, and faster innovation with reduced costs. For these numerous advantages digital twin is an ideal solution for several problems in domains such as Industry 4.0, education, healthcare and smart cities. However, to make sure the digital twin contributes effectively to these domains by representing a synchronized real-time copy of the physical system, the network connecting the physical and digital twins should fulfill a set of requirements such as low latency of real-time communication, data security and quality. This paper provides an overview on the technology of digital twin and its application domains with a detailed discussion on its networking requirements and proposed enabling technologies to fulfill them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data-driven models for industrial energy savings heavily rely on sensor data, experimentation data and knowledge-based data. This work reveals that too much research attention was invested in making data-driven models, as supposed to ensuring the quality of industrial data. Furthermore, the true challenge within the Industry 4.0 is with data communication and infrastructure problems, not so significantly on developing modelling techniques. Current methods and data infrastructures for industrial energy savings were comprehensively reviewed to showcase the potential for a more accurate and effective digital twin-based infrastructure for the industry. With a few more development in enabling technologies such as 5G developments, Internet of Things (IoT) standardization, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and blockchain 3.0 utilization, it is but a matter of time that the industry will transition towards the digital twin-based approach. Global government efforts and policies are already inclining towards leveraging better industrial energy efficiencies and energy savings. This provides a promising future for the development of a digital twin-based energy-saving system in the industry. Foreseeing some potential challenges, this paper also discusses the importance of symbiosis between researchers and industrialists to transition from traditional industry towards a digital twin-based energy-saving industry. The novelty of this work is the current context of industrial energy savings was extended towards cutting-edge technologies for Industry 4.0. Furthermore, this work proposes to standardize and modularize industrial data infrastructure for smart energy savings. This work also serves as a concise guideline for researchers and industrialists who are looking to implement advanced energy-saving systems. Image 1 • Various countries transitioning towards Industry 4.0 via industrial analytics and energy savings. • Enabling technologies can lead to the deployment of new industrial data infrastructures. • Advances in digital twins, AI, blockchain and IoT can serve as enabling technologies. • Global policies are inclining towards improving industrial energy efficiency. • Communication between researchers and industrialist is crucial for implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]