Virtual Simulation Design and Debugging of Lift-and-Transverse Stereo Garage Based on the Digital Twin

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This study proposes a method for quickly managing changes in the design of a stereo garage by utilizing a digital twin environment in the process of updating the design blueprint. The following modifications are necessary:

1. (1)The introduction should include an explanation of the digital twin environment and emphasize the importance of an environment that can immediately apply various solutions in response to changes in design.

2. (2)The problem definition is not well-defined and requires a separate section.

3. (3)The study heavily relies on Siemens solutions for design changes, making it feel more like a tutorial. The originality is lacking in the system architecture design. It's necessary to provide a methodology and define the results of applying that methodology in detail, in line with the research paper.

4. (4)The explanation of Siemens solutions is not crucial but occupies a significant portion of the content.

Author Response

请参阅附件。

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The article presents an interesting method for the virtual simulation of the operation of stereo garages by using Digital twins.

The introduction is adequate to justify the usage of virtual twins in this application, but the relevance and contribution must be detailed.

Section 4 describes the Digital twin, but some images displayed show more the configuration steps of the simulation process rather than a general diagram that explains how to replicate this type of simulation. Also, some images of the PLC program are presented, but it would be better to display a diagram which represents the logical sequence of the system instead.

The validation is performed through simulations with visual analysis. It would be better to define some parameters to measure and validate through these simulations. 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript describes the development method for a lift-and-transverse stereo garage using virtual simulation and verification using a digital twin with software tools such as S7-PLCSIM Advanced, NX MCD and TIA Portal. After a presentation of different literature sources about the state of the art, the work is presented in detail. Unfortunately, important literature references are difficult to access or are not available in English.

The works have little or no connection to research and science. The manuscript represents more of a description of an already established development concept, which is presented by using an example. There is a conclusion in Chapter 5 (Discussion) which only states that with this development concept the cost of actual debugging time and the development cycle time for stereo garage development will be reduced.

The manuscript is interesting to read in that it records a virtual development method with a digital twin.

I would like to make the following comments and suggest the following improvements and corrections:

Line 84: Add a short explanation of S7-PLCSIM Advanced.

For example: S7-PLCSIM Advanced is a simulation software. It enables the simulation and testing of control programs for the SIMATIC STEP 7 process control system (manufacturer Siemens) on a virtual control computer.

Line 85: Add a short explanation of NX MCD

For example: NX is a physic-based mechatronic construction software and MCD defines the Mechatronics Concept Designer software (manufacturer Siemens).

Line 85: Add a short explanation of TIA Portal

The Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) Portal (manufacturer Siemens) gives you complete access to the full digitalized automation from digital planning to integrated engineering to transparent operation.

The explanation in line 279 to line 287 is also a good text which could be placed at the begin on the manuscript.

Line 90: Add a short explanation about the five-dimensional model.

The reference given by [15] does not represent a truly helpful source of information, as the referenced manuscript is not easily accessible and in this case it is not unusable.

Please provide a two sentence explanation, for example: (The following text is an extract from https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-596/1486/7/072038/meta )

“In the five-dimensional model, there are five elements: physical entity (PE), virtual entity (VE), digital twin data (DD), service system (SS), connection (CN). Five-dimensional model separates the concept of digital twin data from the original three-dimensional model, and adds service system, fills in the gap of driving and changing in the digital twin system, satisfies the basic conditions of describing the dynamic working situation of the system, and creates the possibility of analyzing and establishing the digital twin system of multi-application scenarios.”

Line 336: Possible word mix up:

Write “where the car access input signals ...” instead of “where the access car input …”

Line 341: Reformulate the sentence.

Example: The test system's computing environment is based on an Intel i7-11800H CPU (Central Processing Unit) and an RTX 3060 6G GPU (Graphic Processing Unit), ...

The manuscript is written in a well readable and understandable manner.

References are checked only randomly. All tested references were found, excluding Ref [14]: The manuscript is only available in Chinese. Also [1], [6] and so on …. For me it makes little sense to cite references in an English-language journal that are not written in English.

Please review all references and remove or change any references that are written in Chinese or indicate that they are only available in a language other than English.

A major revision must be carried out before the manuscript can be released for publication.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors responded to all the comments and suggestions

Reviewer 3 Report

The revision of the manuscript has been carried out successfully, the comments have been implemented and the reviewer's comments have been answered conclusively, so that I accept the manuscript in its current form for release.

In particular, the literature references in Chinese have been replaced by English language versions - Very good!