Controller-in-the-loop virtual testing of overhead crane in VR

In Unity3D I made a digital twin of an overhead crane. A person wearing VR glasses can push a load on the crane with his hand. In Unity3D I created a PID controller on the overhead crane that corrects deviations of the load chain from the vertical; the overhead crane therefore positions itself in such a way that the load quickly comes to a standstill. The novelty is that a person in VR can push the load away and thus test the controller settings. The force between hand and load is also visualized.

I also created a link between Unity3D and a RevPi Core 3+ (hardware) with DDS. On the RevPi I developed a ROS node with a controller. Instead of a controller in Unity3D, the deflection of the load chain is sent to the controller in a ROS2 topic, and the correction signal is fed back to the motor of the overhead crane as simulated in Unity3D. In this way, hardware-in-the-loop has been achieved.