A Framework for a Digital Twin of Inspection Robots

The study addresses the design and implementation of a modular, scalable platform for specialized inspection tasks, highlighting its suitability for future research activities. The work presents a fully validated methodology that encompasses both the physical robot and its digital twin. Specifically, the objective of this work is to design and develop a sensor-equipped mobile robot designed for inspection and surveillance tasks. The study places particular emphasis on the robot’s actuation system, the design and implementation of its control architecture, and the creation of a PC-based control interface. Additionally, suitable sensors can be integrated to enable future capabilities in automatic obstacle detection and autonomous navigation. The paper presents a digital shadow/DT-enabling framework to support inspection and surveillance operations, grounded in the digital representation of the robot.