A digital twin (DT) can be seen as a tool that speeds up the process of innovation. DT provides numerous advantages by generating a real-time replica of tangible systems. These benefits include faster business processes, higher productivity, and more innovative ideas at lower costs. It is one of the most exciting new digital technologies being worked upon to provide assistance to different types of businesses to go digital and make decisions. The idea of a DT has been around for almost 20 years, but it is still changing as it is used in various fields. This chapter looks at 46 different definitions and research work of DT that have been written in the last 10 years and comes up with a single, more general definition that includes all of them. It also gives a detailed description of the DT and how it differs from other digital technologies. A case study is provided on how DT works and how it can be used, along with discussions on future opportunities of DT.
Top1. Introduction
Digital Twin (DT) technology drives digital transformation, enabling innovative business models and decision tools. Companies are integrating data, analytics, and services, or are in the process of doing so (Delen et al., 2013). DT is a digital replica of a physical product, originating from product life cycle management. Grieves identifies three key elements: the physical product, its digital representation, and two-way data connections for information exchange (Grieves et al., 2014). This process, shown in Figure 1, involves transferring data from the physical to the virtual world through twinning and vice versa. Twinning syncs real and virtual environments, with virtual spaces supporting functions like modeling, testing, and optimization.
Figure 1. Twining Real and Virtual Environments
DT, along with cloud computing, augmented reality, ML, AI, and IoT, has gained popularity in academia and industry in recent years. This growth is evident in Figure 2, which shows increasing DT adoption in maintenance research. Publications, including journals, books, and articles, highlight this trend. The article volume in 2019 indicates a rise compared to 2018, with no output between 2014-2015, possibly due to phased digitalization, IoT integration, or ML data analysis preceding DT adoption for maintenance (Errandonea et al., 2020).
Establishing a comprehensive definition is essential (VanDerHorn et al., 2021). Despite substantial attention in corporate and academic circles, there's no universally accepted definition, framework, or protocol for DT. Current research also lacks a thorough examination of DT, including its conceptual foundations, technological aspects, and industry applications.
The primary contributions of this chapter are:
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Uncovering DT (A Foundational Guide): This chapter aims to give readers a foundational understanding of DT technology. The opening section offers a brief history of digital twin technology. The article analyzes the process of creating and using a digital replica, highlighting factors impacting each implementation stage.
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Explore Digital Twin Technologies: This research aims to understand how key technologies integrate to create a functional DT environment. It explores the hardware, software, and domain-specific technologies like IoT devices, simulation software, ML algorithms, and virtualization techniques. Identifying the essential technologies for digital twin applications is crucial for its development and utility.
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Highlight Industrial DT Use in the Relevant Lifecycle Stage: Following that, the attention turns to the incorporation of DT technology into industrial systems. The review assesses the originality and impact of the research and commercial activities discussed in recent academic publications.
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Suggest Areas for Future DT Study: Ultimately, the future potential of the technology is discussed and the consequences of these advancements are analyzed from a theoretical perspective. Moreover, this analysis delves into various significant prospective applications of digital twin technology across multiple domains, examining their specific modalities and the level of implementation achieved.
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Outline a Few Possible Fixes for the Current Issues: The benefits that digital twin technology can offer to these components are highlighted, and the section then outlines the challenges to the growth of this novel architecture. Moreover, this study offers valuable insights into the progress of digital transformation technologies.