Digitalizing Manual Processes Using Digital Twins and Product Lifecycle Management for Safe Human-Robot Interaction Scenarios

Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) can potentially enhance productivity, quality, and safety in manufacturing industries. However, transitioning from manual processes to HRI settings poses several challenges for companies, such as integration issues, knowledge transfer, and ensuring the safety of operators and equipment. To tackle these challenges, this paper suggests an approach to digitalizing manual processes using Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Digital Twins (DTs) technology. The proposed approach involves creating a comprehensive Bill of Process (BOP) using PLM software to describe manual processes as digitalized data. The created BOP, containing all product-related information, can be exported and imported into the database of the DT platform to generate elaborated digital models within the DT platform. These models can be utilized for the implementation of safe HRI settings, in conjunction with other existing digital models on the DT platform. Furthermore, the rest of the data, which is hard to be described in PLM software, can be added manually and directly through the GUI of the DT platform. The resulting digital models and information are designed to enable cooperation with DTs of robots and sensors in complex scenarios.