It has been said Digital Twins are not so much a technology, but rather an approach. While there is a lot of truth in this statement, it’s also important to note that Digital Twins provide a great way to integrate a variety of different technologies.

 

The essence of Digital Twins lies in their ability to establish a connection between the physical and digital worlds. Data flows from the physical world to the digital world in one direction, while interventions flow from the digital world back to the physical world.

 

Around this loop, there is tremendous potential to leverage a variety of exciting and relevant technologies, including:

 

• Sensor technologies: to gather data about the physical world

• IoT and 5G: to transmit the data from the physical to the digital world

• Data management platforms: to handle data from multiple sources

• Modeling technologies: to generate insight from the data using any of a variety of modeling techniques, including physics-based models, agent-based models, or AI/ML-based models

• Visualization technologies: to enable people to see what is happening within the Digital Twins

• Decision support tools: to help make better decisions faster

• Robotics: to support effective interventions.

 

Each of these technologies is interesting and valuable in their own right, but they offer even more value when integrated in the context of Digital Twins. However, the promise of value doesn’t end there. There’s an opportunity to federate Digital Twins by establishing secure and resilient information flows between them. Therefore, interoperability solutions based on data sharing are of great interest in this space.  It’s important to remember that technical solutions alone are not enough. While necessary, they are not sufficient. To ensure connected Digital Twins are widely adopted and provide the most value, it’s essential to address the human and organizational factors involved. This means the development and adoption of federated Digital Twins is actually a socio-technical change programme.

 

The UK-hosted part of this conference will bring together some of the world’s leading experts in this field to explore and unpack these fascinating topics. By joining us on this journey, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from the best and make valuable contributions to the progress of this hugely important area.