Digital Twin and Education in Manufacturing

Learning Factories (LFs) enable learning in a factory environment, and – due to the possibility of experiential learning – in manufacturing they are considered the most promising approach to acquire the skills necessary to succeed in the increasingly complex and technologically driven workplace, political, and social arenas of the twenty-first century. Due to the modelling capabilities at the basis of this technology, Digital Twin (DT) can support the implementation of LFs.. In this chapter, the role of DT in manufacturing education is explored through two illustrative examples. Here, the DT technology is utilized to build digital LFs adopted for learning purposes. The first example shows a virtual flow shop that allows students to learn about: (i) Scheduling; (ii) Condition-based Maintenance; (iii) Internet of Things. Whereas in the second example, Virtual Commissioning (VC) is utilized to virtually verify the PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) code before its deployment, allowing students to learn both PLC programming and code verification techniques. The implemented teaching activities were targeted both to students from university and vocational schools. Furthermore, they dealt with different phases of the lifecycle of manufacturing processes. Throughout this chapter, it will be demonstrated that the application of the DT technology to LFs enables the building of a flexible teaching environment that can be customized based on the type of students and the competences that must be taught.