Robot cell digital twins as a tool for remote collaboration between organizations

Abstract

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts" is a common summation of Aristotle’s famous thought. This phrase is now following reality. Working together has versatile advantages allowing us to examine things from divergent aspects and perspectives supported by the strengths of participating individuals. For complex tasks, simple digital platforms allowing to share documents, text, speech, and video are often not sufficient. Tasks including operation on sophisticated machines and other equipment are evident examples of this. These sophisticated machines are not necessarily physically available for everyone. However, digital alternatives of them can be. When connected with the physical world, enabling data flow in both directions and therefore implemented as digital twins, these systems allow true collaboration between people and machines independent of physical location. In this paper, digital twin implementations enabling efficient remote collaboration between two organizations are reported. These systems are not limited to research and education. Instead, utilization for remote deployment and maintenance tasks are possible.