Digital twins - Definitions, classes and business scenarios for different industry sectors

Abstract

Over the recent years, several attempts were made to define the concept of the Digital Twin and to create a generic view for utilizing it within the industry. Still, many industry sectors are not able to transfer a generic definition into their product portfolio, as Digital Twins differ from each other to the same degree as physical products differ from each other. Hence, it is crucial to enlarge the definition towards a classification and business scenarios which enable sector specific views on the concept of the Digital Twin and help SME to utilize the concept towards their products. Future engineers will have to design physical products besides a digital counterpart and therefore have to identify interdependencies between these two products during the development. This paper discusses a generic definition of a Digital Twin that can be applied throughout different sectors as well as a classification for Digital Twins to enable the implementation of the concept on several maturity levels regarding the constraints of the product portfolio. In addition, these classes are viewed in different business scenarios and an outlook is given to further increase the usability of Digital Twins within new industry sectors.