How to Realize an Autonomous Control Cabinet Production

NX Industrial Electrical Design provides the digital twin of the control cabinet and the digital twins of all included electrical products for autonomous control cabinet production. Find out, what users need to learn.

Autonomous manufacturing has already arrived in the present. Just as Industry 2.0 electrified factories and Industry 3.0 introduced robotics, completely autonomous processes will be the norm in many areas within a few years – that is the essence of Industry 4.0. Smart, decentralized robots will communicate with and adapt to one another, each assuming a specific role but all geared towards a common goal. Possible erroneous human interventions are eliminated so that employees can concentrate on more meaningful, more creative tasks.

The basis for autonomous control cabinet production is consistent, precise, process-wide data. The digital twins of the electrical products as well as the digital twin of the control cabinet itself are therefore required for autonomous control cabinet production. The prerequisite for autonomous systems is the interaction of simulation and automation. The control and simulation of the entire production is cloud-based. The runtime for the autonomous system runs on the SIMATIC controller in the control cabinet. Based on the comprehensive digital twin, robots are able to automatically place rails and cable ducts on the mounting plate. The robotic arms perform their autonomous task without being programmed for it. This makes it possible to set up different mounting plate configurations.

With the help of the Control Panel Design functionality in TIA Selection Tool, electrical engineers can design and dimension the main electric of a machine according to the standard. This simplifies the electrical engineering tremendously. For example, it is possible to design load feeders according to UL or ICE, including cable dimensioning and short-circuit calculation. Of course, the corresponding accessories are also taken into account. This means that the electrical engineer can digitally describe a load feeder completely according to the standard. This information can be further processed in NX Industrial Electrical Design or the SIEMENS Industry Mall.