IoT-Based Digital Twin System for Harvesting Robots

With the rapid development of intelligent manufacturing and the Internet of Things (IoT), digital twin technology has garnered increasing attention in the field of agricultural robotics. This paper proposes a digital twin-based monitoring system for button mushroom harvesting robots, aiming to enhance the efficiency and reliability of harvesting robots in dynamic environments. The system integrates Unity3D, EtherCat, Modbus, and MQTT protocols to collect and analyze real-time data, constructing a virtual twin that enables robot motion monitoring, fault prediction, and collision detection. The system includes the modeling of the button mushroom factory and harvesting robots, real-time environmental reconstruction, and data transmission, achieving high-fidelity mapping between virtual space and the physical world. The system allows real-time monitoring of the harvesting robot’s operation and the environmental changes in the factory, improving production process visualization and predictability, reducing labor costs, and increasing production efficiency. Finally, the feasibility of the system was validated through a button mushroom factory case study, providing strong support for the application of agricultural robots in dynamic environments.