Daniel Fowler
Forum Replies Created
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Research on some complex systems can only move forward via simulations, for example, how can you test what-if scenarios on a fleet of autonomous vehicles or an entire manufacturing plant when it is expensive/impractical/dangerous to run a physical fleet of robots or machines? The higher fidelity of a DT for each robot/machine may help such simulations.
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It reminds me of the rise in the use of “architecture” in the software and business world. I’m sure true architects still bemoan the rise of “software architects” and “business architecture” and numerous other corruptions. The metaphorical use of architecture, as Wikipedia calls it, has stuck, as I think the metaphorical Digital Twin will stick. I think the Digital Twin Consortium definition is reasonable on the concept, but as you rightly point out, there is a lot of fluff that needs to disappear and more done on the real engineering of DTs. I think we can all try and point out when something is merely an algorithm, model, or simulation when someone is trying to say it is a DT.
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Misuse of technology terms is common, and Digital Twin is another example. The term Digital Twin is now embedded and unlikely to be dropped. However, it must be used correctly. Computer simulations have existed since the birth of the digital computer. A computer’s reason for being is to run a model, from a simple alogrithm to a complex simulation. Even using email and writing a document in a wordprocessor is a model of previoulsy manual tasks. A Digital Twin is a step up in fidelity and feedback, it needs to be a live model of a cyber-physical systems, at any scale. It is more than a simulation or model. It can be used for real-time querying and analysis and running what-if scenarios without impacting the system it is representing until changes are pushed out. The twin part is refering to the properties of the real system that the digital system can provide and mimic. Yes, it is not a twin in the true meaning of the term, but it is a virtual representation of a physical system and is enough of a twin to be useful. It is up to those who know the difference between an algorithm, model, simulation, and twin to point out when terms are used incorrectly.
Dan