Unifying Digital Twin Framework: Simulation-Based Proof-of-Concept

Abstract

In recent years, the Digital Twin (DT) concept has surfaced in many areas and landed the approach in top strategic technology trends. However, there seems to be no unique understanding of the concept, and debates about what is a DT are leading to ambiguity on the concrete solution to be developed in a given situation. This paper introduces a unifying reference framework, to both serve as a conceptual basis that disambiguates the concept and a guide to derive custom solutions. It is a technology-agnostic three-layered model, which reconciles existing understandings of DT under a common umbrella. We also derive an operational architecture as a possible implementation of the framework, which we demonstrate on two use cases. The large adoption of such a framework will draw a clear line between what is a DT and what is not, while establishing a high-level standard model for DT engineering.