On the scaling of digital twins by aggregation

We discuss the emerging technology of digital twins (DTs) and the expected demands as they scale to represent increasingly complex, interconnected systems. Several examples are presented to illustrate core use cases, highlighting a progression to represent both natural and engineered systems. The fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Marcelo Pias, Lawrence Bull, Daniel S. Brennan, Mark Girolami, Jon Crowcroft
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2025-01-01
Series:Data & Policy
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Online Access:https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2632324924000865/type/journal_article
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Summary:We discuss the emerging technology of digital twins (DTs) and the expected demands as they scale to represent increasingly complex, interconnected systems. Several examples are presented to illustrate core use cases, highlighting a progression to represent both natural and engineered systems. The forthcoming challenges are discussed around a hierarchy of scales, which recognises systems of increasing aggregation. Broad implications are discussed, encompassing sensing, modelling, and deployment, alongside ethical and privacy concerns. Importantly, we endorse a modular and peer-to-peer view for aggregate (interconnected) DTs. This mindset emphasises that DT complexity emerges from the framework of connections (Wagg et al. [2024, The philosophical foundations of digital twinning, Preprint]) as well as the (interpretable) units that constitute the whole.
ISSN:2632-3249