DEVELOPMENT OF A DIGITAL TWIN FOR INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING: CONNECTING SENSORS AND ACTUATORS TO AR/VR APPLICATIONS

This article presents an overview of a prototype application that integrates Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) technologies with digital twin methodologies to support industrial facility management and process monitoring. As industrial environments continue to adopt the principles of Industry 4.0, the integration of immersive technologies and real-time data becomes essential to achieve smarter and more responsive operations. Extended Reality (XR), a term encompassing Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR), merges the physical and digital realms, offering intuitive interfaces to interact with complex systems. VR enables full immersion in virtual environments, AR overlays digital information onto the real world, and MR allows interaction with both simultaneously . These technologies are increasingly relevant not only for training and visualization but also for real-time monitoring, diagnostics, and control in industrial settings. The project focuses on developing a new XR application for Android devices, aiming to improve its performance and usability in industrial contexts. The core of the application is a 3D digital twin of the facility, created using Building Information Modeling (BIM) and enriched with a structured database that includes construction data and life cycle attributes . Accuracy is a key factor in these types of technologies and therefore must be handled with special care . To ensure consistency and interoperability, classification systems such as Uniformat are used to organize the associated metadata. Keywords: Extended Reality, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality, digital twin, Building Information Modeling, Industry 4.0, industrial facility management, real-time monitoring, data interoperability, BIM integration, immersive technologies.