Modular manufacturing and distributed control via interoperable digital twins

Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMSs) have been proposed to bolster resilience and to efficiently address rapid changes in customer needs. However, notable obstacles to their adoption still persist, such as insufficient integration into operations and inadequate incorporation of distributed control. In this paper, we present a 2-pillar conceptual architecture for enabling the operational integration of RMSs through interoperable Digital Twins (DTs) and propose avenues to enhance their capabilities with distributed and global intelligence technologies. To this end, utilizing DTs based on industrial standards promotes modularity and integrability. Moreover, it enables leveraging decision support methods and tools that may consider economic, energy and environmental aspects at different production levels (from machine level to the whole production system), thus offering a comprehensive framework to enhance adaptability, resilience, and sustainability in RMS.