Digital twins based on augmented reality of measurement instruments for the implementation of a cyber-physical system

The recent increase on the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 fields has led the research topics to investigate on the innovative technologies that could support these emerging topics in different area of applications. In particular, the current trends are to close the gap between the physical and digital worlds, thus originating the so-called Cyber-Physical System (CPS). A relevant feature of the CPS is the digital twin, i.e., a digital replica of a process/product with which user can interact to operate on the real world. In this paper, the authors propose an innovative approach exploiting an Augmented Reality solution as Digital Twin for the measurement instrument to obtain a tight connection between the measurements as physical world and the Internet of Things as digital applications. In fact, by means of the adoption of the 3D scanning strategy, Augmented Reality software and with the development of a suitable connection between the instrument and the digital world, a Cyber-Physical System has been realized as an IoT platform that collect and control the real measurement instrument and makes its available in Augmented Reality. An application example involving a digital storage oscilloscope is finally presented to highlight the efficacy of the proposed approach.