Web-Based Digital Twin
STATE OF THE ART
Digital Twin
The digital twin permeates diverse sectors and found its way into almost all areas of industry [ 5 ]. As a result , the counterpart of a digital twin is no longer just the physical twin , but rather an asset in general , including a system or a process . By means of a bidirectional connection , both are in contact and the digital twin can represent the current , future and historical state of its counterpart . Via an interface , the user can interact with the digital twin and thus influence the asset .
The Industrial Internet Consortium ( IIC ) is working on an overarching and concise definition of the digital twin [ 2 ] and is cooperating with the German Plattform Industrie 4.0 [ 6 ], since the digital twin is a key concept for Industrie 4.0 ( eng .: Industry 4.0 ) [ 7 ]. Progressive digitization and networking can create intelligent and individual products that meet current trends and customer requirements .
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Development
Digital Master
Digital Prototypes
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Instantiation Digtal Twin |
Digital Master / Prototype ( n ) Digital Shadow ( n )
Production / Use / Service
Digital Master / Prototype Digital Shadow
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Digital Twin n
Disposal
Digital Twin
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Aggregated Digital Twins |
Fig . 2 : Instantiation of digital twins following [ 9 ].
The German Scientific Society for Product Development , called WiGeP , provides a possible description of the life cycle of a digital twin of a product [ 8 ]. Fig . 2 shows an adapted illustration . In the presented scenario , the digital twins are instantiated from so-called digital masters , which result from product development and serve as a blueprint for the digital twin [ 8 ]. The digital master includes the digital prototypes from product development and continues to exist in the digital twin in the form of individualized models .
The entire data from the life cycle of a physical product form a so-called digital shadow . The instantiated digital twins exist throughout the product lifecycle [ 1 ] and provide aggregated data that can be reused as a knowledge pool for example to optimize the next product generation . For existing assets ( brownfield ), there is also the possibility of retrofitting a digital twin . The existing environment provides constraints that need to be analyzed and incorporated into the necessary retrofit measures [ 9 ]. In any case , the product-specific digital twin is linked to the
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