US IGNITE: A gigabit network and Cyber-Physical framework for Advanced Manufacturing, NSF Computer and Networking Systems
In this NSF project, Dr. Cecil and his students are exploring the design and implementation of a 3D digital twin in the context of a Internet-of-Things (IoT) based cyber physical framework. The digital twin serves as a vital link between the virtual world and the physical world which involves the rapid robotic assembly of Micro Devices. Such frameworks hold the potential to facilitate rapid and agile collaborations among distributed cyber and physical engineering components and resources. An advanced Test Bed has been created which includes a complex array of cyber and physical components which collaborate using cloud based principles and emerging Next Generation SDN Internet technologies. An information centric engineering approach has been adopted to design the 3D DIGITAL TWIN based cyber physical interactions, which provide a foundation for implementing this cyber physical framework. The cyber modules are capable of assembly planning, path planning, Virtual Reality based assembly simulation and physical command generation. The 3D digital twin is one of the cyber environments where assembly plans are proposed, compared and analyzed; subsequently, the most feasible plan is selected and the assembly plan details are translated into robotic assembly commands for the target micro assembly tasks to be completed. The physical assembly activities are accomplished using automated robotic micro assembly work cells. Latency experiments have been conducted to study the feasibility of SDN based techniques supporting such cyber-physical interactions.
A view of the 3D virtual reality based digital twin which is the link between the Cyber and Physical components in a collaborative Industry 4.0 test bed