Introduction to Digital Twin
Everyone has experienced the digitization process in life. Books have become ebooks, and music has transitioned to MP3 records. The theory behind technology is similar but also slightly different. This article will give an insight into Technology and its benefits. Think of a video game. You have an on-screen avatar, but the production of that on-screen copy doesn't exclude you. It represents merely you and your actions in a digital ecosystem. The exception is that it wouldn't remain static if your avatar were a valid Digital Twin.
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What is Digital Twin Technology?
An ability to take a virtual representation of the element and the dynamics of how an IoT device operates and works. It is more than a blueprint or more than a schematic. The Internet of Things acts as a foundation for the technology. With the evolution of IoT, Gartner has listed the technology amid its ''Top 10 Trends'' for the past two years. It is a virtual ringer of the real-world thing. It has two versions of something: the physical one and the other digital one. It uses sensors joined to physical objects to receive and broadcast data regarding those physical devices. The ultimate concept is building, testing, and building equipment in a virtual environment.
The technology after digital twins has grown to incorporate more substantial items such as structures, workshops, and even towns. Some have said personalities and methods can have digital counterparts, extending the theory further. It's not just a 3D model; it is a living model that sees all the intricate parts of the physical things, e.g., the car as a part of a complex technology ecosystem of navigation, communication collision avoidance, climate change, etc. Aviation designers can use it today to pinpoint and examine under what condition or after how many hours of operating a critical sensor part will fail.
Data - Pillar of Digital Twin Technology
The implementation is not that easy. The central pillar is data. Gaining access to these data across industries is a complicated process. This hurdle can be solved if organizations properly manage their data. A holistic approach to storing and managing data should be followed, but this is often easier said than done. The base or start of a digital twin is mining data. The mining of data from the system is done to monitor performance. It makes a decision based on facts, not fiction.
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How to Monitor the State of Equipment-Predictive Maintenance?
Digital Twins can help the business monitor the state of equipment at remote sites and optimize product designs. The sharing and summary of its data enable organizations to make determinations that immediately influence their key performance pointers. For example, Manufacturing machines can often be a complicated and costly process. Assembling a prototype from the parts that haven't been developed and tested together will often cause problems, and guessing everything to function correctly may require significant material and human effort. This might fail as many inner part tests have not yet been done.
To solve this problem, a virtual-based physics machine can simulate the device's real-time behaviour by analyzing the data. It is used for a wide range of scenarios. From one point of view, there are digital twins that model and represent a single sensor within a device. On the other hand, some reflect many aspects of a whole campus of buildings, comprising energy, usage, topology, and more.
IoT in Digital Twin - Resource for Real Data
IoT is a significant technology involved in the twin. Collecting operation data is getting cheaper because of the sensors of IoT. The physical assets help to make it as it gives the data that makes it a real twin. Sensors combined with the physical stock receive data and transfer it back to the digital twin, and their communication advances optimize the product's performance. For example, sensors within an aero engine might recognize when components require changing or fixing. Jet engine maker Rolls-Royce already uses Engine Health Management (EHM) to track the shape of thousands of engines, using onboard sensors and live satellite feeds.
These data are used to improve maintenance regimes. Ultimately, they could be used in the initial aero-engine design process. Twin helps to demonstrate different aspects of IoT devices or Physical devices. Providing a model and API makes working with IoT very easy. Thus, it represents the thing itself and works with different capabilities and features of that thing. It can, for example, be implemented in industries. We can take an example of the manufacturing process. By equipping machines with sensors, we can collect various operational data, Like the behavior of the equipment(control physical elements).
Condition of the machine(control real-time dynamics of how an object or a system interacts with other items in the physical environment and the situation itself). When the deviation in performance is visible, the manufacturer can take action to optimize their production process.
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What are the benefits of enabling Digital Twin technology?
The benefits of enabling the technology are listed below:
Innovatory product design
First, it accelerates innovative product design. Now, we need not construct an expensive prototype; instead, a virtual template would replace the manufacturing process. The virtual model is first tested and optimized. Then, after this test, we can make the product.
Tracking of product
A digital twin tracks a product throughout its entire lifecycle. IoT sensors send feedback periodically about the product's performance. The digital twin analyzes all the data and continuously improves the quality.
Predictive Maintenance
In addition to improving the final product, these sensors allow for the implementation of predictive maintenance. Rather than guessing when the product needs service, we could have thousands of sensors blanketing the product and monitoring its health. The ongoing transmission of control values to the cloud makes it easy to detect any irregularities quickly and easily. They can also determine when maintenance is necessary based on use and wear and tear. This helps avoid expensive and unexpected repairs.
Detailed information on the product
The information provided to digital twins by the physical product gives manufacturers more insight into their products. It makes it possible for them to predict more than they ever could. Through properly created interfaces, it is simple to communicate with the model and ask the what-if questions to the figure, which resembles many unrealistic provisions to perform in real life.
What are the challenges of adopting Digital Twin?
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The first step in developing a twin is to have 3D drawings. A survey found that the user believes 2D illustration is essential. A twin with a 2D design model is not possible. Most industries are still working on 2D drawings.
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Secondly, the major success behind the technology will be digitization. Many industries that have to adopt digitization are using technology. For successful implementation, many small-scale suppliers need to become aware and assist in embracing digitization.
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Unlocking the real advantage of its theory requires a holistic road to the store, managing and handling the product's digital data. A robust engineering change administration process is also required to ensure that the practical and physical arrangements are perfectly managed.
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What are the Use Cases of Digital Twin?
With the existence of Industry 4.0, connecting things or digitization is well recognized in every business. The development of IoT results in the representation of physical objects digitally. The concept predicts the present as well as the future of the product or thing. It reduces operational costs, increases productivity, efficient production cost, performance improvement, and predicts behaviour. The primary application area of the technology is as follows -
Manufacturing
Digital Twin had a significant impact on designing and manufacturing the product. It changes the old process of directly producing the product after getting the information.Space Research
During its first days in space, NASA had to face lots of hurdles. One significant way to diagnose and repair the craft in the area was to create a Digital Twin of the spacecraft where all information was stored, and they simulated the conditions. That way, they solved their problems.
Automobile
Digital Twins can also be designed to create virtual models of vehicles before their actual construction. This helps capture the car's behaviour when it is working. We can get periodic feedback about performance and maintenance requirements. Thus, it helps deliver the best facility to the customer.
Wind turbines
General Electric(GE) uses the digital twin to monitor and control turbines on its wind farms. They resolve the problem when it generates some updation about turbines.Healthcare
Digital Twin provides healthcare by analyzing reports and patient history. This makes it easy for doctors to give proper medication to their clients' digital twin healthcare.
Industries IoT
Industries are now widely using Digital twins to check the position of their complicated machinery. This property of predictive maintenance helps predict future operations and anomalies.
Retail
Appealing to consumer experience is critical in the retail sector. Implementing digital twins can play a crucial role in augmenting the retail customer experience by creating virtual twins for customers and modelling their fashions. It also helps in better in-store planning, security implementation, and energy management.
Digitization brings together every idea, process, machine, stakeholder, and thing you do, ultimately forming a unified digital enterprise. With this advancement, Digital twins will become standard in many industries. When combined with advanced analytical tools and machine learning, they will change the traditional way of analyzing and tracking equipment and enable a new era of predictive maintenance.
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