What is a Digital Twin?

A digital twin technology is the virtual model representation of the real and current conditions of a physical object or process to which real-world data and even information can be integrated into live time with the sensor data for constant updating during all stages of its useful life to document it, preserve or test it in simulated conditions similar to the real ones more quickly and at a lower cost.

In this blog, we will talk mainly about object-focused digital twins that can be as big as a city in only a digital representation.

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Digital twin technology

The digital twin concept comes from a new industrial revolution that allows us to take the physical and take it to the digital. Various tools help collect information, such as sensors producing data, and with this digital process, a digital twin prototype can be generated.

The digital twin market can be applied with machine learning to obtain operational data and a better digital process twin.

The digital twin work comes when collecting data to obtain a digital twin instance for checking multiple data of physical objects.

Digital twin begins, and the benefits of analyzing the usage examples are shown below. Of course, there are different digital twins, for example, unit twins.

ADVANTAGES

• It allows us to capture the condition of an object at a certain time and preserve it for posterity, as is the case of a digital twin of a building or historical monument.

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Example

A very notorious case was the fire in the Notre Damme cathedral in Paris, which is being restored thanks to it was previously digitized for the setting of the video game Assassin’s Creed; having digitized the cathedral allows them to restore it to the smallest detail.

• It allows us to visualize the interrelation between different elements at a three-dimensional level to generate proposals, as in engineering.

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Example

Many times we find industrial plants that have places with very complex pipe paths that intersect or cross in different planes; if we want to do new engineering, we must take these conditions into account so that the routing of the new pipe does not collide with the existing ones. 

This allows that having considered it does not cost us strange when building or manufacturing it due to some error or condition not considered.

• Thanks to the digital twins, prototypes can be generated in the manufacturing industry that, in turn, can be subjected to simulations of real working conditions.

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Example

A motor or a mechanical part can be designed and subjected to different types of forces and vibrations to generate a mapping of the places with greater effort and, based on that, reinforce the design to minimize damage to the motor over time.

• They allow us to integrate new proposals into an existing reality, such as digital twins in urban planning or city design.

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Example

The projection of a park within an existing subdivision so that the proposal can convince the authorities that they can invest in a project or that the affected neighbors visualize the benefits that a modification like this can bring them, even this can be applied to the modification of large areas within a city.

• They allow us to document and inspect details or contexts of spaces that would be risky in the real place, such as digital twins of nuclear plants or processes within a very risky industry such as the steel industry.

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Example

Industries in which it is costly to access certain spaces due to their risky conditions and in which special permits must be generated that take time, as well as the use of personal protective equipment is a very good option. Having the digital twin helps protect the user who must access the area and even visit remote places, such as taking a specific measurement on an oil rig in the middle of the sea; IMAGINE what they save by having the digital twin of it and not having to travel by boat or helicopter to take a measurement.

• They allow us to replicate or modify the real conditions of an object, such as an action figure, a mask, etc.

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Example

We could like a toy or some art sample. Still, we also want to modify it with our creativity and ingenuity. In this case, we must first create its digital twin using design programs to make the necessary changes. It even helps us generate 3D replicas in the digital world of something that we are passionate about in the real world, to say a famous statue and put it in our living room.

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An important factor

One of the very important parts of a digital twin is the integration of information from the real object we are representing; that is, we can enter variables with values ​​of interest. Imagine a team in a factory that, by clicking it, we can show elements such as model, brand, serial number, color, a person in charge of the team, etc. Or, for example, we can add to the digital twin of a monument its documentation, such as its history, its creator, a biography, or in the case of urban planning, add plans and benefits of each of the elements that are part of the urban plan. , etc.

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Collaboration

The digital twins allow the collaboration of different people in the manipulation of it since, being a digital object, it can travel through the Internet, or the actions of the users can focus on the object without the need to be physically there, which allows us to have contributions from different parts of the world.

We also have to take into account Industry 4.0, which will allow us to update the models or digital twins in real-time for immediate decision-making or the recognition of behaviour patterns of the twins that generate them.

• Simulation
• Level of detail
• Innovation
• Performance

Uses in:

• engineering
• Restoration

David Gelernters Nets first put forth the digital twin concept in his 1991 book Mirror Worlds.

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