Design and implementation of modular production system practice teaching platform based on digital twins

The significance of this study lies in the conversion of the traditional manufacturing industry into the intelligent, automated transformation of the background to meet the universities and colleges of intelligent manufacturing professional construction and cultivate urgent needs of the new era of composite technical personnel, to help students with the theoretical knowledge for the application of practical training, based on a solid foundation for the workplace, and to mitigate restrictions on the school laboratory space to cultivate diversified professional knowledge of the students.

In this paper, digital twin technology is applied to the intelligent transformation of the modular production system, thereby expanding the practical training content, relying on the “digital twin” virtual simulation technology based on Unigraphics, TIA Portal, PLCSIM Advanced, and other software, to conduct the virtual debugging training of the MPS digital twin model. The Process Simulate software and industrial Internet technology were used to conduct virtual and real linkage training, using intelligent monitoring technology for the real-time monitoring of equipment status, with the support of industrial Internet of Things technology to ensure the stability of data transmission and the safety of the experimental process during the training, reformulating the teaching framework, formulating the teaching plan for practical training in phases, and participating in the students’ competitions.

The teaching reform method of combining digital twin, virtual simulation, virtual-reality interaction, and other technologies with traditional equipment is proposed, and the MPS practical teaching platform is constructed, which integrates mechanical design, control system design, digital twin, and virtual simulation under the teaching platform, improves the comprehensiveness of the practical training teaching, imparts the equipment a higher utilization value while meeting the requirements of talent cultivation, and formulates a teaching framework for combining the content of practical training with college student competitions, which helps students receive several national awards. We have developed a teaching framework that combines practical training content with college student competitions, which has helped students bag several national awards and extended the breadth and depth of intelligent manufacturing practical training education. The application of equipment monitoring technology and industrial internet technology in practical training teaching provides strong support for the implementation of practical training teaching and provides a safe and stable experimental environment for the students.

Combining virtual and real considerably reduces the cost of improvement, effectively enhances the comprehensiveness, design, and research of the experiment, and improves the students’ knowledge of the intelligent manufacturing engineering profession and industrial production, which is highly significant for the cultivation of intelligent manufacturing talents, and concurrently provides a new way of thinking for the reform of practical teaching in colleges and universities and the construction of intelligent manufacturing professions at present. The next step will be to further improve the maturity of the twin model and the degree of intelligence of the equipment to realize a higher degree of digital twins, cultivate more intelligent manufacturing applied talents, and provide a complete practical training platform for students.