Machine and plant builders are increasingly moving towards simulating control software before commissioning in order to be able to correct any errors in advance. Instead of performing the tests manually as before, it is advisable to switch to an automated procedure.
The requirements in machine and plant engineering on the part of customers are constantly growing: ever shorter production and changeover times, permanent deadline pressure, growing diversity of variants, and so on. To meet these challenges, digital twins are increasingly being used even before commissioning. In addition to methodical test planning and execution, they enable any software errors to be rectified at an early stage. At the same time, however, the system architecture of the control software of modern plants is becoming increasingly heterogeneous; not least due to machine operators who - thanks to technologies such as smartphones - are increasingly open to intuitive operating concepts and customizable interfaces in their plants.