We created a Digital Twin of a cleanroom robot (in this case the TX2-60L) to be used in combination with the Microsoft HoloLens 2 or desktop app. This ‘virtual sibling’ represents a fully interactive 3D visualization of the TX2-60L and has the following properties:

1. It allows assessing the current (and historical) status of the robot arm, including temperatures, operating mode, safety status, errors, info or warning messages, and more – so problems can be diagnosed remotely.

   
   

2. It represents the real-world physical movements of the robot in real time – so remote technicians can follow exactly what the robot is doing.

   
   

3. It allows controlling the robot to a certain extend – so remote technicians can ensure safety (lower movement velocity, lock movement, reboot the robot controller, etc…) and fix an occasional disrupt.

   
   

4. It helps facilitating real-time support ‘over the air’ without requiring the robot to be reachable over the public internet. – Many industries, such as pharma or biotech, have tight security requirements in place and prefer not to open their network any further than necessary. Our solution leverages a private ‘express route’ to link the actual robot to its Digital Twin, living in Microsoft Azure. Security first!

   
   

5. Creating the possibility to access all this information remotely can save manufacturing plants tons of time and money. It eliminates the need for physical presence in the cleanroom, which means no unnecessary disinfection of the room and the person entering the room is needed.

But even regardless of the cleanroom environment, we strongly see added value for these types of Digital Twins. They allow operation managers and technicians to monitor entire production lines from a distance.