Optimizing the virtual commissioning process for panel repairing line
Kokkonen, Jouni (2025)
2025
Automaatiotekniikan DI-ohjelma - Master's Programme in Automation Engineering
Tekniikan ja luonnontieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2025-10-21
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-2025102110029
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-2025102110029
Tiivistelmä
The aim is to make deliveries of large production lines higher quality and more efficient with the help of Industry 4.0 innovations. One of these innovations is virtual commissioning, which enables testing of the production line in a virtual environment even before the actual commissioning. This process can be used to reduce delivery related risks and commissioning time and provide transparency to the customer right from the beginning of the project. However, virtual commissioning is usually carried out with manual monitoring, so it is not particularly comprehensive, and does not offer opportunities for automatically repeatable test cases.
The purpose of this thesis was to design an efficient and standardized workflow for virtual commissioning, and to create a systematic and efficient validation model for the PLC software. In addition, the thesis investigated what the biggest challenges of virtual commissioning are in terms of reliability, and what other potential benefits it offers to the customer and supplier.
The testbed in this work was the Raute R7 panel repairing line’s infeed and outfeed end, which were customized to suit the customer’s facilities and needs. A virtual environment consisting of a 3D model, a behaviour model and an emulated PLC was built in the Siemens environment. The work explores various testing methods and tools, and based on them, a model best suited to the use case is created.
The implementation phase included the creation of a behavioural model and integrating it with the PLC program and the kinematic model. In the behavioural model, the couplings to the emu lated PLC and the kinematic model had to be verified. In addition, the functionality of the virtual sensors, actuators and drive telegrams were validated. These steps ensured that the virtual commissioning setup accurately represented the real system.
The result was a standard model for creating a virtual commissioning environment for Siemens environment, using Software-in-the-Loop (SiL) configuration. In addition, a systematic five-step PLC validation model was developed, which allows validation to be carried out from individual program blocks all the way to the validation of customer requirements and capacity runs.
The study also assessed the reliability of the virtual model in commissioning and pointed out shortcomings where the virtual environment does not fully correspond to the operation of the real production line. In the case of the testbed, for example, shortcomings were observed in the functionality of the suction cup and the modelling of flexible materials and components. In addition to reducing commission time, other benefits of virtual commissioning were identified, such as the possibility for the commissioning engineers to familiarize themselves with the line in advance and several transparencies that are essential for the customer.
The purpose of this thesis was to design an efficient and standardized workflow for virtual commissioning, and to create a systematic and efficient validation model for the PLC software. In addition, the thesis investigated what the biggest challenges of virtual commissioning are in terms of reliability, and what other potential benefits it offers to the customer and supplier.
The testbed in this work was the Raute R7 panel repairing line’s infeed and outfeed end, which were customized to suit the customer’s facilities and needs. A virtual environment consisting of a 3D model, a behaviour model and an emulated PLC was built in the Siemens environment. The work explores various testing methods and tools, and based on them, a model best suited to the use case is created.
The implementation phase included the creation of a behavioural model and integrating it with the PLC program and the kinematic model. In the behavioural model, the couplings to the emu lated PLC and the kinematic model had to be verified. In addition, the functionality of the virtual sensors, actuators and drive telegrams were validated. These steps ensured that the virtual commissioning setup accurately represented the real system.
The result was a standard model for creating a virtual commissioning environment for Siemens environment, using Software-in-the-Loop (SiL) configuration. In addition, a systematic five-step PLC validation model was developed, which allows validation to be carried out from individual program blocks all the way to the validation of customer requirements and capacity runs.
The study also assessed the reliability of the virtual model in commissioning and pointed out shortcomings where the virtual environment does not fully correspond to the operation of the real production line. In the case of the testbed, for example, shortcomings were observed in the functionality of the suction cup and the modelling of flexible materials and components. In addition to reducing commission time, other benefits of virtual commissioning were identified, such as the possibility for the commissioning engineers to familiarize themselves with the line in advance and several transparencies that are essential for the customer.