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24 SMT007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2023 Phil Voglewede is a professor and the asso- ciate chair of mechanical engineering at Mar- quette University and was recently named the director of the Omron Advanced Automa- tion Lab at Marquette. Digital twin, he says, isn't just mimicking what humans do; it's not inventing flight by flapping our arms. Rather, it's looking at automation in ways you hadn't looked at it before. It's trying something new and different, but ultimately effective. Barry Matties: Phil, how do you think about digital twin? Digital twin is not just having a simulation of what you're seeing, but bringing in all the other information that you get along the way, which makes the design, manufacturing, delivery, and performance in the field even more robust and higher performing with that information. Digital twin is so much bigger than just, "Hey, Drilling Down on Digital Twin I have a CAD drawing or a simulation." Now I can get a higher fidelity model because I know everything along the way: how it was manufac- tured, what were the torques on the belts, the order of the screws being put in, what truck it was on, the power it is consuming in the field, etc., and how that affects the overall perfor- mance. If we can understand how each subassembly and assembly and delivery all come together, we can totally rethink the approach to how these things work together. Why, for example, does it need six bolts? Why not three snaps and a clasp, especially when we can make it easier, like with a push fit, or something else? We can understand the big picture, the goal, and your constraints. is is similar to Indus- try 3.0, when we start talking about Six Sigma and Taguchi, and pushing that information back into the design. Ultimately, you're look- Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team