Construction and Validation of a Digital Twin-Driven Virtual-Reality Fusion Control Platform for Industrial Robots
Traditional industrial robot programming methods often pose high usage thresholds due to their inherent complexity and lack of standardization. Manufacturers typically employ proprietary programming languages or user interfaces, resulting in steep learning curves and limited interoperability. Moreov...
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| Format: | Article |
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MDPI AG
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/13/4153 |
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| author | Wenxuan Chang Wenlei Sun Pinghui Chen Huangshuai Xu |
| author_facet | Wenxuan Chang Wenlei Sun Pinghui Chen Huangshuai Xu |
| author_sort | Wenxuan Chang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Traditional industrial robot programming methods often pose high usage thresholds due to their inherent complexity and lack of standardization. Manufacturers typically employ proprietary programming languages or user interfaces, resulting in steep learning curves and limited interoperability. Moreover, conventional systems generally lack capabilities for remote control and real-time status monitoring. In this study, a novel approach is proposed by integrating digital twin technology with traditional robot control methodologies to establish a virtual–real mapping architecture. A high-precision and efficient digital twin-based control platform for industrial robots is developed using the Unity3D (2022.3.53f1c1) engine, offering enhanced visualization, interaction, and system adaptability. The high-precision twin environment is constructed from the three dimensions of the physical layer, digital layer, and information fusion layer. The system adopts the socket communication mechanism based on TCP/IP protocol to realize the real-time acquisition of robot state information and the synchronous issuance of control commands, and constructs the virtual–real bidirectional mapping mechanism. The Unity3D platform is integrated to develop a visual human–computer interaction interface, and the user-oriented graphical interface and modular command system effectively reduce the threshold of robot use. A spatially curved part welding experiment is carried out to verify the adaptability and control accuracy of the system in complex trajectory tracking and flexible welding tasks, and the experimental results show that the system has high accuracy as well as good interactivity and stability. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9b90e1cbea4b4f2b80b5f5f61b9a1fe5 |
| institution | Matheson Library |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj-art-9b90e1cbea4b4f2b80b5f5f61b9a1fe52025-07-11T14:43:32ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202025-07-012513415310.3390/s25134153Construction and Validation of a Digital Twin-Driven Virtual-Reality Fusion Control Platform for Industrial RobotsWenxuan Chang0Wenlei Sun1Pinghui Chen2Huangshuai Xu3School of Intelligent Manufacturing Modern Industry, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, ChinaSchool of Intelligent Manufacturing Modern Industry, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, ChinaSchool of Intelligent Manufacturing Modern Industry, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, ChinaSchool of Intelligent Manufacturing Modern Industry, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, ChinaTraditional industrial robot programming methods often pose high usage thresholds due to their inherent complexity and lack of standardization. Manufacturers typically employ proprietary programming languages or user interfaces, resulting in steep learning curves and limited interoperability. Moreover, conventional systems generally lack capabilities for remote control and real-time status monitoring. In this study, a novel approach is proposed by integrating digital twin technology with traditional robot control methodologies to establish a virtual–real mapping architecture. A high-precision and efficient digital twin-based control platform for industrial robots is developed using the Unity3D (2022.3.53f1c1) engine, offering enhanced visualization, interaction, and system adaptability. The high-precision twin environment is constructed from the three dimensions of the physical layer, digital layer, and information fusion layer. The system adopts the socket communication mechanism based on TCP/IP protocol to realize the real-time acquisition of robot state information and the synchronous issuance of control commands, and constructs the virtual–real bidirectional mapping mechanism. The Unity3D platform is integrated to develop a visual human–computer interaction interface, and the user-oriented graphical interface and modular command system effectively reduce the threshold of robot use. A spatially curved part welding experiment is carried out to verify the adaptability and control accuracy of the system in complex trajectory tracking and flexible welding tasks, and the experimental results show that the system has high accuracy as well as good interactivity and stability.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/13/4153digital twinUnity3Dindustrial roboticsreality–virtual mappingsocket communicationhuman–computer interaction |
| spellingShingle | Wenxuan Chang Wenlei Sun Pinghui Chen Huangshuai Xu Construction and Validation of a Digital Twin-Driven Virtual-Reality Fusion Control Platform for Industrial Robots Sensors digital twin Unity3D industrial robotics reality–virtual mapping socket communication human–computer interaction |
| title | Construction and Validation of a Digital Twin-Driven Virtual-Reality Fusion Control Platform for Industrial Robots |
| title_full | Construction and Validation of a Digital Twin-Driven Virtual-Reality Fusion Control Platform for Industrial Robots |
| title_fullStr | Construction and Validation of a Digital Twin-Driven Virtual-Reality Fusion Control Platform for Industrial Robots |
| title_full_unstemmed | Construction and Validation of a Digital Twin-Driven Virtual-Reality Fusion Control Platform for Industrial Robots |
| title_short | Construction and Validation of a Digital Twin-Driven Virtual-Reality Fusion Control Platform for Industrial Robots |
| title_sort | construction and validation of a digital twin driven virtual reality fusion control platform for industrial robots |
| topic | digital twin Unity3D industrial robotics reality–virtual mapping socket communication human–computer interaction |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/13/4153 |
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