Digital Twins and Virtual Reality as Means for Teaching Industrial Robotics: A Case Study

Abstract

The purpose of this work is the implementation of Virtual Reality (VR) and a Digital Twin (DT) of a Flexible Manufacturing Cell (FMC) to develop hard competences within the Industrial Robotics (IR) field. In this work, Robo DK (RDK) was used along with SolidWorks (SW) as a CAD software. The DT is made by placing all FMC 3D models in RDK. An industrial process is programmed into a VR DT environment for safe interaction and error detection. After the process is validated in VR, the students replicate it in the physical FMC. VR also allowed for interaction with different types of industrial robots. It is concluded from the results that the use of VR and a FMC DT allows for the students to have a safer, more organized and extensive experience with industrial robots; and therefore, they tend to propose solutions that improve quality, productivity, and efficiency in industrial processes.