Hoppenbrouwers Techniek has built an Experience Center in Udenhout. The Hoppenbrouwers Experience Center (HEC) aims to showcase innovative techniques. Hoppenbrouwers creates their industrial automation solutions behind the computer. It is then difficult for companies, students, potential employees, and other interested parties to become familiar with these techniques if they are hidden behind a screen.
Hoppenbrouwers Experience Center: waar techniek tot leven komt (hoppenbrouwerstechniek.nl) Link to Hoppenbrouwers website about the HEC (in dutch).
Nowadays, these innovative technologies also include Digital Twinning. XR4industry has created a digital twin for Hoppenbrouwers of two cells from the HEC. One of these is a warehouse where products are stored fully automatically, and the other is a marble sorting machine. This last machine receives marbles and sorts them by color to fill jars with marbles of only one color.
The digital twin of the marble sorting machine can be seen in the video above. The digital twin is used to train PLC programmers and allow them to perform tests before working with the real machine. It also enables them to work on one machine with multiple programmers simultaneously.
Raoul van de Laak, engineer at Hoppenbrouwers and responsible for the HEC, said about the project: “In our HEC in Udenhout, we have developed and implemented an advanced digital twin in close collaboration with our partner XR4Industry. This digital twin accurately simulates the industrial process in the HEC. The students in our HEC have connected this digital twin to the PLC, allowing us to test our software without a need for the physical installation. This has provided us with valuable insights and surprising results that also occur in ‘real’ industrial processes.”
He continues: “Thanks to XR4Industry, we have been able to create a fully deterministic, Unity-based digital twin that accurately simulates the behavior of rolling marbles and the filling of jars. This project has shown us what is possible with digital twins and the complex physics behind the jars and marbles. It was an educational and inspiring project, and we look forward to future innovations!” As Raoul points out, it is very complex to accurately simulate the behavior of a marble in a simulation that is both deterministic and real-time. XR4Industry’s software makes this possible.
Raoul concludes: “Thanks to XR4Industry for the good and pleasant collaboration; we look forward to more future innovations!” On behalf of XR4, we would also like to thank Raoul and Hoppenbrouwers for the collaboration.