Digital twin enabling flexible and sustainable human–robot collaboration

Technological advancements surged the demand for customized production, driving manufacturers to move toward mass customization and leading to the emergence of the concept of Industry 5.0. This paradigm emphasizes the social values and sustainability of a production system. In this transition, human-centric manufacturing has become the focus, and issues relating to the collaboration of the operator and the robot shifted from providing only a safe environment for the operator to creating a workplace where the well-being of the human operator is the key. Collaborative robots play a pivotal role in transforming manufacturing processes by enabling human–robot collaboration and adaptability. However, realizing the full potential of cobots necessitates advanced digital technologies. This paper introduces a digital twin framework specifically tailored for collaborative robots within the context of Industry 4.0 and 5.0. The framework leverages digital twin technology to create a virtual representation of physical cobots, enabling real-time monitoring and optimization of their performance. The presented use case is about the development of a digital twin to dynamically regulate the speed of cobots for balancing speed and energy use, thus demonstrating that dynamic speed regulation can significantly enhance energy efficiency, without renouncing the productivity dimension. The experiment was conducted at the Mind4Lab laboratory of Politecnico di Torino, and the digital twin is implemented in the FlexSim software. This chapter serves as a practical example of how Digital Twin and cobots can work together to improve efficiency and reduce energy usage, enabling the development of flexible and sustainable manufacturing systems.