Digital copies of products, processes or equipment can improve manufacturing processes, reduce prototype costs and shorten a product's time to market. Want to know more about the Digital Twin? Keep reading.
Definition of Digital Twins
A Digital Twin is a virtual replica made in the image and likeness of a product, such as a multimodal operation, a steel shop, a hydropower plant, a port, and so on.
Thus, the twin is a process that makes it possible to anticipate, control and optimize many operations, simulating the real in the virtual and evaluating the operation and status of assets and processes.
From there, real-time data is incorporated, which can be gathered through sensors or Big Data-related technologies.
Once collected, the information is processed with artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and machine learning to create a living representation that thinks and acts to optimize a process or product.
How are Digital Twins created?
Initially, twins were merely sophisticated 3D computer models, but Artificial Intelligence (AI) combined with the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data made it possible to build something digitally that constantly learns and helps improve the physical version of the item.
Once a twin is created, the copy begins to operate within a simulated world, fed by countless data and algorithms capable of showing the most probable results of how the reference object will perform.
Simulations can predict performance, create different hypotheses, detect failures, design improvements, and generate deep insights into functionality, all much faster and at lower cost than physical testing would require.
In practice, this robust technology relies on sensors that collect data on working conditions and physical actions on the reference object, and on how it reacts to certain stimuli.
Applications of Digital Twins in different sectors
Digital Twins can be used to simulate processes and products, for predictive maintenance of machines and for data analysis to support decision-making, for example. Their functionalities can optimize many industry sectors by multiplying the capacity of data storage, management and analysis systems, as well as managing multiple digital copies for a greater ability to evaluate alternative future scenarios.
Digital Twins: where to apply them?
Energy: assertive decisions and a more strategic view in the context of energy scheduling; Healthcare: high accuracy for diagnostics; Logistics: capacity to transport more while reducing costs; Steel industry: optimized production and planning with no production delays; Sustainability: reduces environmental impacts predictively.
The importance of Digital Twins in the digital age
The Digital Twin can be used from designing small parts, such as screws, to creating factories, industrial processes, machines, rockets or entire cities.
One of the main advantages of Digital Twins is the ability to identify problems in advance and resolve them faster, since they can warn about any future problem, incident or anomaly in their operation.
Twins can also work autonomously because they are able to analyze a situation, propose optimized solutions and put them into operation.
Moreover, when a company builds a digital replica of its products, the environments in which it operates, and the systems that produce them, it can virtually predict everything that will happen in the physical world.
For engineers, Digital Twins are very useful because, with a detailed history of the previous model, they can correct errors and create new, more reliable versions.
In this way, the twin delivers more assertive decision-making, indicating to specialists the best course of action given the conditions set by the systems for hourly, weekly and monthly decisions.
The Digital Twin is a worldwide technology trend that has been growing in recent years, and Enacom is no different. Would you like to apply this tool in your company? Talk to our team. We can help you!
Learn more: explore the Gemminus platform.