What is a digital twin?
I believe many of you have heard of digital twins. In the past few years, the popularity of this word has continued to rise, and it has frequently appeared in the speech topics of major summit forums, attracting much attention both inside and outside the industry.
What exactly is a digital twin? Who came up with it? What changes will it bring to our lives?
With these questions, let's look at today's article -
What is a digital twin
Digital twin, English name Digital Twin (digital twin), also known as digital mapping, digital mirroring.
Its official definition is quite complicated and goes like this:
Digital twin is a multi-disciplinary, multi-physical, multi-scale, and multi-probability simulation process that makes full use of physical models, sensor updates, operation history and other data to complete the mapping in virtual space, thereby reflecting the full life of the corresponding physical equipment. cycle process.
Are you dizzy? In fact, simply put, a digital twin is to create a digital version of a "clone" based on a device or system .
This "clone" is also known as the "digital twin". It is created on the information platform and is virtual.
Maybe you will say, isn't this the design drawing on the computer? Can CAD do it?
actually not. Compared with the design drawings, the biggest feature of the digital twin is that it is a dynamic simulation of a solid object (let's call it "ontology"). In other words, the digital twin will "move".
Moreover, the digital twin is not just "moving" randomly. The basis for its "movement" comes from the physical design model of the ontology, as well as the data fed back by the sensors on the ontology, as well as the historical data of the ontology's operation.
To put it bluntly, the real-time state of the ontology, as well as the external environmental conditions, will be reproduced on the "twin body".
If system design changes need to be made, or if they want to know how the system will react under specific external conditions, engineers can perform "experiments" on the twins. In this way, the impact on the ontology can be avoided, and the efficiency can be improved and the cost can be saved.
In addition to "moving", three key words need to be remembered to understand digital twins, namely " full life cycle ", " real-time/quasi-real-time ", and " two-way ".
The digital twin is a concept originating from the industrial world. In industrial manufacturing, there is a term called "Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)." I believe many people have heard of it.
The full life cycle means that the digital twin can run through the entire cycle of the product including design, development, manufacturing, service, maintenance and even end-of-life recycling. It is not limited to helping companies make products better, but also helping users make better use of products.
Real-time/quasi-real-time refers to the establishment of a comprehensive real-time or quasi-real-time connection between the ontology and the twin. The two are not completely independent, and the mapping relationship also has a certain real-time nature.
Bidirectional means that the data flow between the ontology and the twin can be bidirectional. Not only the ontology can output data to the twin, but the twin can also feed back information to the ontology. Enterprises can take further actions and interventions on the ontology based on the information fed back by the twin.
The origin of the digital twin
When it comes to the inventor of the concept of "digital twin", there is no clear statement in the industry.
Many people believe that digital twins were proposed by Dr. Michael Grieves, a professor at the University of Michigan , in 2002.
But there is no written documentation or data to support this claim.
In an article published in 2014, Dr. Michael Grieves once "retrospected" his own speech at the University of Michigan PLM Center in 2002, and mentioned related concepts similar to digital twins. He also "retrospected" himself in a 2003 executive training when he proposed "the concept of a digital equivalent or digital twin of a physical product."
However, there is no conclusive documentary or imaging evidence for these.
The really well-documented "digital twin" concept proposer is the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL, Air Force Research Laboratory) .
AFRL logo
In March 2011, Pamela A. Kobryn and Eric J. Tuegel of the Structural Mechanics Division of the US Air Force Research Laboratory gave a presentation entitled "Condition-based Maintenance Plus Structural Integrity (CBM+SI) & the Airframe Digital Twin ( Condition-Based Maintenance + Structural Integrity & Fighter Airframe Digital Twin )”, the first explicit mention of digital twins.
At the time, AFRL wanted to digitize fighter maintenance , and digital twins were an innovative approach they came up with.
When the U.S. Air Force realized that digital twins have strong practical significance, another company also developed a strong interest in digital twins, which is the United States General Electric Company (GE) .
General Electric Company (GE)
GE discovered the value of a digital twin when it provided the U.S. Department of Defense with a solution for the F-35 Joint Strike Aircraft.
I don't know if you still remember the previous article by Xiaozaojun introducing Industry 4.0? Yes, General Electric Company of the United States is the main promoter of the American advanced manufacturing strategy (the American version of Industry 4.0).
At that time, GM of the United States had been working on the research of industrial digitization and how to build an industrial Internet system. Obviously, digital twins are very useful for Industry 4.0, so to speak.
Later, Siemens of Germany (the representative company of German Industry 4.0) also embraced the digital twin and regarded it as a treasure.
Around 2015, China also began to follow suit. At that time, many domestic research institutions and enterprises, including the Industry 4.0 Research Institute, started research projects related to digital twins.
Since then, the concept of digital twin has been popular on the Internet and the industry, until today.
The value of digital twins
Just built a digital twin, how can it be said that it will affect the development of the fourth industrial revolution? What benefits can it bring to traditional industries?
Let's explain it with a case.
industrial manufacturing
Digital twins originated in the field of industrial manufacturing. Industrial manufacturing is also a major battleground for digital twins.
Digital twin of production process (picture from Deloitte University Press)
When we introduced the concept of digital twins earlier, we actually mentioned this content.
In the process of product development, the digital twin can virtually build a digital model of the product, and conduct simulation testing and verification on it. During production, the operation of the equipment can be simulated, as well as the changes brought about by parameter adjustment.
Digital twins can effectively improve product reliability and availability, while reducing product development and manufacturing risks.
During the maintenance phase, the digital twin can also play an important role.
As mentioned earlier, the US Air Force proposes digital twins to help better maintain fighter jets.
Using digital twin technology, through continuous collection and intelligent analysis of operating data, the optimal time point for maintenance work can be predicted, and a reference basis for maintenance cycles can also be provided. The digital twin can also provide a reference for failure points and failure probabilities.
Digital twins have brought obvious efficiency improvements and cost reductions to industrial manufacturing, making almost all industrial giants flock to them.
Take General Motors Corporation for example. They claim to have created a digital twin for every engine, every turbine, every MRI (GE had 1.2 million digital twins as of 2018).
The picture comes from GE official website
Through these realistic digital models, engineers can debug and experiment in the virtual space, so as to make the machine run the best.
Many domestic industrial technology companies have also deployed digital twin technology, including Tree Root Interconnection, Advantech, iSoftStone, etc.
Smart City
In addition to industrial manufacturing, digital twins are also closely related to 5G and smart cities.
We know that 5G will usher in the era of "Internet of Everything", which has brought human connection technology to an unprecedented height.
In the future, with the support of 5G, a closer connection can be established between the cloud and the terminal. This means that more data will be collected and pooled together.
This data can help build stronger digital twins. For example, a digital twin city.
Today, our cities are filled with all kinds of sensors, cameras. With the help of IoT technologies, including 5G, the data collected by these terminals can be extracted more quickly.
In a digital twin city, the operation status of infrastructure (water, electricity, gas, transportation, etc.) and the deployment of municipal resources (police, medical, fire, etc.) will be collected by sensors, cameras, and digital subsystems, and sent through IoT technologies, including 5G, are delivered to the cloud.
City managers, based on these data and city models, build digital twins to manage cities more efficiently.
Compared with the "product life cycle" of industrial manufacturing, the "life cycle" of cities is longer, and the rewards brought by digital twins are greater. Of course, the deployment of urban digital twins is also more difficult.
In fact, Hyderabad and Singapore in India, as well as Shenzhen and Xiongan in China, are already exploring and trying this. A large amount of investment is flocking to the application scenario of "smart city + digital twin".
Virtual Singapore Programme
Tencent's WeTransport, WeCity, Weiling, Ali's "City Brain", and iFLYTEK's "Xunfei Super Brain" all involve the combination of smart cities and digital twins.
Infrastructure Engineering
Infrastructure engineering is also an important application area for digital twins. Especially for China, the "infrastructure madman", the introduction of digital twins is even more significant.
Before building infrastructures such as highways and bridges, we complete the digital modeling of the project, and then simulate and simulate the project in a virtual digital space to evaluate the structure and bearing capacity of the project. We can also import flow data to evaluate whether the project is It can meet the needs after being put into use.
After the project has been delivered, it is also possible to assess whether the project can withstand the stress of special circumstances during the maintenance phase. And monitor possible accident hazards.
In addition to the above fields, many scenarios, including medical care, logistics, and environmental protection, are suitable for adopting digital twin technology, and the application scenarios are very broad.
Epilogue
All in all, digital twin is a very promising cutting-edge technology that will bring huge value returns to enterprises.
It is precisely because of this that many investment institutions have taken the opportunity to hype the concept of digital twins, and many companies can't wait to embrace digital twins.
According to a survey conducted by the world-renowned consulting firm Gartner in early 2019, 13% of enterprises and organizations deploying the Internet of Things have applied digital twins, and 62% of organizations are preparing to use digital twins.
Gartner also listed digital twins among the top ten strategic technology trends for 2019.
However, we should still look at digital twins rationally .
Embracing digital twins requires not only profound technical precipitation, but also huge capital investment, as well as the corresponding level of management and employee skills.
At this stage, most domestic enterprises do not have this condition. If you blindly follow the trend and rush into the market, the investment is likely to be lost.
Relatively speaking, concentrated research, objective evaluation, and careful investment are the correct postures to open up the digital twin world .
references:
1. "Industry 4.0 and Digital Twin", Deloitte
2. Who proposed the digital twin? ", Industry 4.0 Research Institute
3. "Digital Twin: Creating a Virtual Copy of the City and You", Chen Long
4. "Digital Twins: Creating Powerful Products and Reshaping the Customer Experience", Accenture