Epistemic Review
Confidence: 50% I have a good theoretical understanding of digital twins but no practical experience. It’s hard to gain that without large-scale resources, which I doubt I’ll get access to without being part of an organization that deals with this. I should search and explore publicly available resources on digital twins
Sources
Definition
A digital twin is an accurate and one-to-one virtual representation of a physical entity[^1]
How does it work?
A digital twin functions using several working methods
- Collecting real-world data via sensors - Sensors attached to a physical object can extract data about the object’s performance, the variables it is measuring, and its health etc. The aggregated data can be applied to the digital twin where the model can:
- Reverse-process the data and simulate the working of the entity. For example: one can collect the aerodynamic performance and data of an aircraft, data associated with its usage of fuel, data on its trajectory and flight patterns, and data on the passenger distribution to produce a digital “what if” twin of the same aircraft — How the aircraft would actually be if the current data were to be the correct data. The differences between this digital twin and the physical object being twinned can deliver important insights, patterns, and pointers as to improving the performance and functionality of the aircraft
- Make inferences and decisions. This is similar to the idea of Sensor Fusion, where data fused from multiple sensors can provide us with unique insights and models. An IoT cluster is a great tool to acquire data and information of the physical object
The physical object and its digital twin track each other. For example, the object provides data to the twin and the twin returns back insights.
Benefits of Digital Twins
- Holistic Assessment - Unlike simulations, which focus on select aspects of an entity, a digital twin is a virtual copy of the entire object and its environment itself. This allows for a thorough and well-rounded evaluation and modelling of the real object, taking all the data and the interplay between parameters into consideration. This uncovers more powerful insights normally hidden from view in standard simulations
- Real Time - The digital twin, being a one-to-one virtual copy of the physical entity, is constantly updated with data from the entity’s sensors to track it. Most standard simulations don’t necessarily function in real time but digital twins do
Attention
Digital twins are only useful for large-scale projects such as automobile and aircraft production, manufacturing, power utilities, and building construction. The creation of digital twins is too complex and costly for small-scale projects