27/07/26 Mon 15:39pm
What is “Digital Twin”?
a virtual representation of a physical object, system, or process that spans its life cycle is called a digital twin.
A Digital twin can be created through real time synchronisation of data from sensors and IOT devices.
It is a Living, breathing digital counterpart that is fed by real time data from its physical twin. For example a wind turbine, Its digital twin continuously receives vibration, temperature, wind speed and power output data. the twin doesn’t just display this data. It uses the data to mirror the turbines condition and predict when a bearing might fail, and even let you test scenarios like increasing the blade pitch without risking the real asset.
The three core components of digital twins are:
- Physical Asset / process
- Virtual Model
- The connection
Any digital twin can be divided into three fundamental parts,
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The physical object is the engine and is the real world asset with sensors and actuators
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The virtual Model, it is a combination of geometric model a physics based behaviour and an AI model, that mimics the asset behaviour
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The connection , it is the data pipeline for synchronisation and control
Types of Digital Twins:
1. Part Twin ( Component Twin )
the smallest link, like a bearing or valve
2. Asset Twin
a single product comprising of multiple parts like an engine or a pump
3. System Twin ( Unit Twin )
a Functional system of assets working together. ex an entire production line
4. Process Twin
A complete Manufacturing process from raw material to finished product.
Digital Twin Architecture:
1. Physical Layer
Real world Plant/Asset/Machine/Sensor generating large streams of raw data.
2. Data and Communication Layer
It allows the data to flow in between the physical asset to the virtual model, industrial protocols like MQTT and UA are used.
3. Digital model
It is a semantic model that actually understands the relationship. for ex the valve connected to a pipe and that to a pump.
4. Analytics and Simulation Layers
An AI model predicts failure of the parts, physics simulations run different scenarios and extract useful information
5. Application and Visualisation layer
this layer turns complex invisible data to something visual , intuitive and directly useful , it can be a colour picture on a screen or a digital label floating next to a real piece of equipment. It is the face of the digital twin that humans actually interact with.