Industrial applications of digital twins

TLDR

A digital twin is a continuously updated virtual replica of a real‑world entity that bridges cyberspace and physical systems, serving as the cornerstone of Industry 4.0 and spanning the entire lifecycle from cradle to grave. This article reviews the current state of the art of digital twins, focusing on their application to smart manufacturing and plant‑wide optimization. The main capabilities—mirroring, shadowing, and threading—are examined as they enable digital twins to support industrial processes. The article concludes by outlining future perspectives for digital twin technology. This article is part of the theme issue “Towards symbiotic autonomous systems.”.

Abstract

A digital twin (DT) is classically defined as the virtual replica of a real-world product, system, being, communities, even cities that are continuously updated with data from its physical counterpart, as well as its environment. It bridges the virtual cyberspace with the physical entities and, as such, is considered to be the pillar of Industry 4.0 and the innovation backbone of the future. A DT is created and used throughout the whole life cycle of the entity it replicates, from cradle to grave, so to speak. This article focuses on the present state of the art of DTs, concentrating on the use of DTs in industry in the context of smart manufacturing, especially from the point of view of plantwide optimization. The main capabilities of DTs (mirroring, shadowing and threading) are discussed in this context. The article concludes with a perspective on the future. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Towards symbiotic autonomous systems’.