UC Davis

With recent advances in computing, communication, sensor, and actuator technologies, it has become possible to create virtual representations of physical objects that can communicate with the real world. These connected virtual representations are a new technology, called digital twins, with the possibly to transform numerous industries including: manufacturing, aerospace, and medicine. While there are many examples of digital twins already, the current body of work is insufficient with the majority of the published work on digital twins featuring frameworks or demonstrations that lack the physical component. A set of functional digital twins of laser ablated disks are presented here to demonstrate how one can be used in a machining process. The virtual representations of the disks are a geometric model built in COMSOL Multiphysics® that defines the shape of the disk. The digital twins showcased are able to detect potential faults and control the ablation process. The fault detection was done using images of the plasma plumes generated during the process and modifications to the virtual representation were used to guide the amount of energy used by the laser ablation system to remove material from the physical disk’s surface. In addition to demonstrating how the digital twins can be used as part of the process, three test cases are presented to display how the digital twins compared to their physical counterparts.