Digital Twin Modeling of Refrigerated Warehouses

Abstract

Energy optimization in cold food storage processes is a complex issue, as many variables have to be taken into consideration, according to the nature of the food to be stored. In addition, energy optimization requires exhaustive supervision, especially of the cooling temperatures of the different types of food, as refrigeration is essential for maintaining optimum storage, minimizing product losses. The goal of this study is to present the use of digitization of a process to carry out energy control in real time so that, with a reasonable investment, the quality of the product is maintained and the economic profitability of the facilities is improved. To this aim, we use Industry 4.0 techniques, together with programmable mathematical algorithms in cloud platforms, to build a Digital Twin of a refrigerated food warehouse that will allow automatic supervision of food storage conditions and consumption, as well as to optimize cold generation and the profitability of the process throughout the facility. Keywords: Digital Twin, Smart and sustainable Warehouse, IoT