The adoption and real-world usage of digital twins has been on an upward track over the past few years, but they need to be designed and architected in a structured way for scalability, interoperability and composability to realise their potential transformative value, according to a whitepaper from the Digital Twin Consortium (DTC).
The report, Spatially intelligent digital twin capabilities and characteristics, was written to help business executives, enterprise, business and solution architects, system designers and developers understand the base concept of spatial information relative to the capabilities and characteristics used to describe locational intelligence in the context of digital twin capabilities.
It defines a spatially intelligent digital twin as a system that utilises location intelligence, geospatial context and – depending on the use case – may include real-time motion tracking into its framework. Example use cases cited include smart cities, logistics, energy, manufacturing and disaster management.
Moreover, the whitepaper is designed to offer insight and guidance for businesses so that they can document the capabilities and resulting value streams provided through the ability to visualise, understand and analyse the geospatial locational characteristics of real-world entities and conditions. I makes the point that location matters regardless of the scope, scale or lifecycle phase of a digital twin.
“The virtual representation of reality – including the facilities, assets and real-world conditions being modelled and managed – is central to a digital twin. For many digital twin use cases, representing, visualising, modelling and analysing these entities’ geographic location and spatial (positional) relationships is essential to anchor the virtual to real-world coordinates,” said Dan Isaacs, general manager and chief technology officer of the DTC. “A spatially intelligent Digital Twin can process and interpret spatial relationships between physical assets, infrastructure and operational systems.”
Marc Goldman, an author of the user guide, as well as director of AEC Industry at Esri, added: “Geospatial location is essential to understanding the layout and context of the real-world entities being represented. The insight gained from visualising and analysing data in a locational context is essential for realising value from digital twins.”
The paper attempts to give businesses the ability to understand the distinction between different forms of locational representations, including geometric (3D models), spatial and geospatial models and then to document the key characteristics of locational representations in a digital twin. The latter is said to be necessary so that businesses can consistently capture locational attributes, enabling digital twin system-to-system integration.
The document also investigates the ability to capture a spatially intelligent digital twin’s locational characteristics in the context of capabilities using the DTC’s Capabilities Periodic Table (CPT).
By completing the steps outlined in the whitepaper, the DTC said that organisations can define locational capabilities and data requirements for their digital twins, and then design, develop and operate digital twins that meet organisational needs and provide business value.
“Digital twin systems must be designed and architected in a structured way for scalability, interoperability and composability to realise their transformative value,”said Daniel Feinberg, senior IT strategist and consultant at Motivf Corporation, who is also one of the paper’s authors.
“This includes the definition of the locational capabilities of a given digital twin. This way, organisations can communicate how assets, conditions and events are portrayed and analysed in a spatially intelligent digital twin.”
