Digital Twins

How does a digital twin work?

A digital twin has three basic components: A digital master, a digital shadow, and their intelligent linking. 

1. Digital master

The digital master contains all relevant models of the physical object or process. It uses appropriate data and information models to represent what is expected. Depending on the application, this may relate to the geometry, behavior, function, or other properties of products, machines, or processes.

A car is used as an example. All cars of a type have been produced using the same drawings and production instructions, and have the same average maintenance cycles. We call the models, simulations, and data from which all these cars are produced »master«.

2. Digital shadow

The digital shadow, on the other hand, represents the actual. It consists of data that is collected over the life cycle of the system depicted. This can be operating, status or process data that is recorded by sensors, for example.

The data shows the differences between each car, even though they are identical in construction. This is due to the fact that each car has been subjected to special features during production, such as assembly variations. During operation, the car may have been used in particularly hot, cold or dry regions, requiring shorter maintenance cycles. We call this data, which represents the reality of the unique car, »shadows«.

3.  Intelligent linking

The real value of the digital twin comes from intelligently linking the digital master and the digital shadow.

By comparing the vehicle's master and shadow data, it is possible, for example, to predict the optimum time for maintenance or to derive important improvement potential for future product generations (feedback to design).

What types of digital twins are there and what are they used for?

Application example: Faster development thanks to digital twins

Our researchers have developed a pilot system on which linked production systems can be designed cost-effectively and complex processes safely tested. The principle: A digital twin of the modular development environment ensures that the two robots are automatically configured and controlled for each assembly step.

Advantages of the solution

using the example of the automation of an assembly process for professional tools

Time and cost savings of a robot-based system compared to a traditional pilot system:

• Pilot system in only 12 weeks instead of 12 months
• Cost of about 175,000 € instead of over 2 million €

How can we support you?

Here we show some examples of problems from industrial applications that can be solved with the help of digital twins. 

Read more in the FUTUR magazine

Publications about Digital Twins