Human digital twin: a survey

Abstract

The concept of the Human Digital Twin (HDT) has recently emerged as a new research area within the domain of digital twin technology. HDT refers to the replica of a physical-world human in the digital world. Currently, research on HDT is still in its early stages, with a lack of comprehensive and in-depth analysis from the perspectives of universal frameworks, core technologies, and applications. Therefore, this paper conducts an extensive literature review on HDT research, analyzing the underlying technologies and establishing typical frameworks in which the core HDT functions or components are organized. Based on the findings from the aforementioned work, the paper proposes a generic architecture for the HDT system and describes the core function blocks and corresponding technologies. Subsequently, the paper presents the state of the art of HDT technologies and their applications in the healthcare, industry, and daily life domains. Finally, the paper discusses various issues related to the development of HDT and points out the trends and challenges of future HDT research and development.