What is Digital Twin?

Digital Twin- A Bridge Between The Real And Virtual World 

Digital twin or physical twin is a virtual model (replica) of potential and physical entities. In 2002, Michael Grieves wrote the concept of digital twin technology for the first time. Digital twin helps in visualizing things in a virtual environment before implementing your ideas in the real situation. You can create, test, and build your project in the virtual model and pair it afterwards with the physical output, therefore, preventing any loss, time, material, and accidents. 

Industry 4.0 has significant use of digital twin concept, which also includes Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Internet of Things (IoT). 

How digital twin works? 

Experts from the domain collect data of a physical product, sometimes even before it's built physically. This data is integrated with Artificial Intelligence algorithms and insights from analytics software then is represented in the form of a virtual model. 

The physical data, manufacturing data, operational data, and other details are added according to the requirement of the project get the best live model of the physical equipment. 

Important applications of Digital twins

Manufacturing: this concept is revolutionizing the way products are designed and manufactured. It has eased the maintenance process and saves a lot of time and money.

Automobile: It helps in visualizing the behavioural and operational data of the vehicle performance and makes sure the customer gets the best-personalized service.

Healthcare: Digital twins and IoT combine to give the best assistance to patient monitoring and personalized healthcare. 

Retail: A virtual model of the product required by a customer, proper store planning and security are contributions of this concept in the retail sector. 

Smart Cities: Planning a smart city with thousands of residents, buildings, roads, and infrastructure is not possible manually. Digital twin makes this process easier by helping the government and engineers with better insights. 

Digital twin concept is gaining popularity, and even NASA uses digital twins for advanced vehicles and aircraft development.