Integrating Dynamic Digital Twins: Enabling Real-Time Connectivity for IoT and Virtual Reality

When Industry 4.0 technology is applied, it can increase resilience in production systems with interconnected machines and workers. As it is still evolving, research and implementation gaps due to issues such as costs, security, and a lack of use cases and domain expertise for enabling Digital Twins, need to be bridged. This paper proposes a framework connecting an Internet of Things platform with Digital Twin-compliant software based on ISO 23247. The simulation software provides cognitive support for the user who is immersed in the Digital Twin through Virtual Reality, and provides applications such as remote control and exploration of what-if scenarios. Connectivity with an Internet of Things platform facilitates real-time bi-directional communication, collaboration, monitoring, and assistance. A proof-of-concept use case based on an assembly line for a lab-scale drone factory was used for validation of the deployed Digital Twin based on ISO 23347.