Emergence of Digital Twins

TL;DR

Digital Twins are rapidly emerging as a key component of digital transformation, but face challenges in interoperability, data management, and edge analytics, requiring global collaboration and technological convergence.

Contribution

This paper analyzes the current state, challenges, and future directions of Digital Twins, emphasizing the need for interoperability, edge analytics, and global research efforts.

Findings

Digital Twins offer real-time transparency in digital transformation.

Interoperability and data curation are major hurdles.

Edge analytics is crucial for latency-sensitive applications.

Abstract

Multiple forms of digital transformation are imminent. Digital Twins represent one concept. It is gaining momentum because it may offer real-time transparency. Rapid diffusion of digital duplicates faces hurdles due to lack of semantic interoperability between architectures, standards and ontologies. The technologies necessary for automated discovery are in short supply. Progression of the field depends on convergence of information technology, operational technology and protocol-agnostic telecommunications. Making sense of the data, ability to curate data and perform data analytics at the edge (or mist rather than in the fog or cloud) is key to value. Delivering engines to the edge are crucial for analytics at the edge when latency is critical. The confluence of these and other factors may chart the future path for Digital Twins. The number of unknown unknowns and the known unknowns in this process makes it imperative to create global infrastructures and organize groups to pursue the development of fundamental building blocks and new ideas through research.