A Cyber-Physical Machine Tool Framework with a Real-Time Machining Process Digital Twin

Abstract

Digital Twins (DTs) have emerged as a key technology for improving the monitoring, optimization, and automation of manufacturing systems. However, existing Cyber-Physical Machine Tool (CPMT) implementations primarily represent the machine tool, while the machining process remains only partially synchronized with its physical counterpart. This paper extends a previously presented CPMT framework by introducing a hierarchical DT framework that simultaneously maintains DTs of both the machine tool and the machining process. The proposed framework integrates real-time CNC operational data, a voxel-based workpiece representation, synchronized process vibration measurements, and a persistent part DT repository for process replay, traceability, and future synthetic data generation. Experimental evaluation demonstrated real-time operation at a 20 Hz machining-state update rate, interactive visualization exceeding 100 frames per second, and a mean depth reconstruction error of 0.16 mm. The implementation provides a foundation for AI-assisted machining applications while preserving the machine tool monitoring and teleoperation capabilities.