Digital Twin Technology: [What is it Series]

The business world has been buzzing with Digital Twin Technology soon after it was announced as one among the top 10 strategic technology trends by Gartner's Vice President himself at the Gartner IT Symposium held at Orlando, Florida last year. Something to note here is that the technology itself has been into existence for quite sometime and dates back to the year 2002, however, until recently, now it's in the limelight and gained traction due to the courtesy of another technology. Well, if you have been involved with 'IoT (Internet Of Things)', you would have witnessed the out-pour of activities around Digital Twin and how it has paved the way to Digital Twin Technology by saving costs on the implementation. Gartner has predicted that by the year 2021, Digital twin would be used by almost half of the industrial enterprises around the world and thereby realizing 10% average efficiency gain.

What is Digital Twin Technology?

Simply put, Digital twin is a bridge between the Physical and Digital world. As per GE, "Digital Twin is the combination of data and intelligence that represent the structure, context, and behavior of a physical system of any type, offering an interface that allows one to understand past and present operation, and make predictions about the future". In simple words, Digital Twin is basically a virtual model or image of a physical product, service or a process which is achieved through the steady flow of data from various sensors. It integrates various technologies such as AI, Machine learning, Predictive Analytics, Sensor telemetry, M2M and also employs physics and various algorithms in creating the twin. Also, API's are used for the physical asset and digital twin to talk with each other wherever required.

How does a Digital Twin work?

Digital twins, the virtual duplicate of the physical asset is developed using sensors and real-time data is received to gather information on the status, position, working condition etc. These sensors are connected to the virtual world with cloud-based systems which receives and process the data which are further analyzed. This steady flow of data connecting the physical asset and digital world is called digital thread.Something remarkable about digital twins is the fact that they can be developed even before the physical asset is built. The engineer collects and amalgamates data from several sources and integrates it into a physics based virtual model along with AI algorithms. The insights on the physical asset is obtained by further applying analytics into these physics based virtual models. The steady flow of data aids in achieving the best possible insights and analysis of the physical asset to further build the Digital twin of the to-be-made physical asset.

Why is it important?

We cannot exaggerate enough the importance which Digital Twin would bestow on the number of industries especially where it involves a close interaction between machines and humans. They are living models which would aid companies and people in comprehending the customer needs, improving existing product features, services, operations and substantially enhancing the overall customer experience by continuously monitoring, testing, treating and maintaining the systems in the real-time.

Applications and Real-World examples:

Industry sectors such as Healthcare, Automobiles, Retail, Manufacturing, Industrial IoT, Robotics, Military, Smart Cities etc.have already started implementing, employing and making use of Digital Twin technology.

Healthcare: Human digital twin could be used in patient monitoring for detecting, preventing diseases and in providing personalized treatments.

Military: The effectiveness, usability and maintenance of weapons and military vehicles can be tested and tracked.

Automobile: In automobiles or aircraft's, digital twin technology can play a big role by monitoring the parts, systems and alerting the teams when required.

Manufacturing: Digital Twin makes manufacturing very efficient and plays a significant role in manufacturing products and in their maintenance.

The applications and benefits of digital twin technology are manifold and industries employing it would benefit by having an exceptional competitive edge over their competitors with improved efficiency and superior products. The future is here, lets embrace it and make the most out of the ROI.

What are your thoughts on this technology? Leave your comment below.

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[What is it Series] is a digest which aims to provide a general awareness of some of the common concepts ranging from a multitude of themes.

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Rajaram Chinnakkan is a Project Management Professional and working as a Project Manager. He has obtained a Master's in Project Management from Aberdeen Business School | Robert Gordon University, Scotland and Master's in Business Management from School of Communication and Management Studies, India.