A Flexible Framework to Model and Evaluate Factory Control Systems in Virtual Testbeds

Modern decentralized factory control systems promise to beat traditional hierarchical systems with regard to flexibility and fault tolerance. Despite the benefits, many companies hesitate to make the switch because they have little experience with decentralized systems and cannot fathom the specific implications for their production scenario. To support companies in evaluating specific solutions, we recommend to use Virtual Testbeds, which provide close-to-reality multi-domain simulations and interactive 3D visualizations of production systems. In order to represent different control strategies in Virtual Testbeds, we propose a new framework in which control strategies consist of modular control units. By mixing these control units in different ways, centralized, decentralized and hybrid approaches can easily be implemented. We evaluate the framework by building and controlling a digital twin of a real production system. Together with the unique features of Virtual Testbeds, the proposed framework is an essential step towards a case-bycase decision support for factory control decentralization projects.