Research on 3D monitoring and trajectory self determination system for industrial robots based on digital twins

Abstract Industrial robots have a wide range of applications in the field of intelligent manufacturing, but most of the field monitoring is in a single form, not intuitive, and has low transparency; Furthermore, industrial robots can achieve repeatability up to the micron level. However, during operation, the axes may deviate from each other, and there may even be uncontrolled movements that do not follow the set trajectory. This could lead to robot collisions and equipment damage. To facilitate comprehensive monitoring of the operating status of industrial robots and to determine their trajectories, in this paper, we propose a three-dimensional monitoring scheme for industrial robots based on a digital twin, which reads the axis and joint parameters of the physical robot in real time through PLC and Siemens NX software, achieves data mapping, and enables multi-dimensional monitoring of the robot via a virtual model that’s driven by the physical robot’s movement data. The trajectory data obtained is processed to establish upper and lower limits and standard values for each axis’s trajectory operation, which allows the robot to self-determine its spatial trajectory and achieve early warning.