Approach of Model Extension for Virtual Commissioning to Predict Energy Consumption of Production Systems

Not only as a result of the current energy crisis, opportunities to save energy are a highly focused topic in production. For this reason, the article proposes an approach to evaluate the part-specific energy consumption of production systems by utilization of simulation methods. As an application example, a Comau 6-axis robot is chosen, of which a physically based model is created in the CAE software SimulationX. This model is then exported as a Functional Mock-Up Unit (FMU) and co-simulated within a virtual commissioning environment. Virtual commissioning enables a controller to be connected to a model. Within a Software-in-the-Loop simulation, this is a virtual control system. Based on the movement specifications from the virtual controller, the movement behavior of the machine can be simulated in the virtual commissioning tool ISG-virtuos and the FMU returns the associated power and energy curve as a result variable. For further use, this kind of enhanced simulation models provides the possibility to optimize the utilization of production systems for specific processes in the context of a complete production line or factory.