KEYNOTE LECTURE

Fahmi Bellalouna

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics
Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Early cross-disciplinary validation is essential for the successful commissioning of complex industrial robot and automation systems. However, in early product and process development phases, physical prototypes are often unavailable, costly, or difficult to access, especially in globally distributed engineering environments. Virtual commissioning addresses these challenges by enabling the validation of automation software, robot logic, system behavior, and process sequences using executable virtual models before the physical system is deployed. In this context, Virtual Reality and high-performance 3D game engines offer significant potential for creating immersive, real-time, and interactive Digital Twins. By combining high-quality 3D visualization, spatial perception, physics simulation, scripting capabilities, and open interfaces to industrial machine data and IIoT systems, game-engine-based VR environments can support more intuitive analysis, early error detection, and efficient interdisciplinary collaboration. This keynote presents practical use cases from the XR-Lab at Hochschule Karlsruhe, demonstrating how VR-based Digital Twins can improve virtual commissioning, reduce risks and costs, and accelerate the development and deployment of complex industrial automation systems.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Fahmi Bellalouna is Professor of Digitization in Product Lifecycle Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Karlsruhe, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics. He is the founder and head of the XR-Lab, an applied research and teaching environment dedicated to Extended Reality technologies, including Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality, as well as Digital Twins, Virtual Commissioning, and AI-enabled engineering workflows. His work focuses on the integration of immersive technologies and digital engineering methods into industrial applications, engineering education, and practice-oriented research.
Before joining academia, Prof. Bellalouna gained more than 20 years of professional experience in automotive product development, digital product design, digital manufacturing, PLM/CAx, and digital transformation at Mercedes-Benz, including international project leadership roles in Germany and China. He holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from Ruhr University Bochum, where his research addressed the development of an integration platform for the interdisciplinary design of mechatronic products. He studied Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics at the Technical University of Munich.
His teaching and research activities cover digital product and process engineering, Extended Reality, Digital Twins, Virtual Commissioning, AI in the product lifecycle, and design methodologies for mechanical and mechatronic systems. Prof. Bellalouna has led and contributed to numerous national and international research projects in the fields of Extended Reality, Digital Twins, robotics education, and digital transformation in product lifecycle engineering. He is actively engaged in international academic cooperation and has established partnerships across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.