A digital twin is a virtual model of a physical object or system that receives remote status updates to reflect the current condition of its real-word counterpart. A digital twin can be as simple as a text record or a 3D rendering.
But when powered by real-time data input, especially from IoT sensors, they can be as complex as anything in our physical reality.
Digital Twin is The Next Big Technology
With hindsight, some technologies are revealed as not only promoters of progress, but enablers of other technologies. Think of inventions like the wheel, the Archimedes screw, steel, the assembly line and the Internet. Pull out any one of these linchpins, and essential parts of our civilization disappear.
The digital twin is going to be one of those technology enablers.
The benefits of digital twins go far beyond efficiency: they will bring a resiliency to supply chain that we’ve been looking for in the post-COVID era. They will have profound implications for manufacturing, energy, aerospace, health care, and even urban planning.
Digital twins provide a promise of better decision-making and vastly improved outcomes for everything we do, and are essential for businesses that want to take advantage of other advanced technologies like machine learning/AI.
To get to these benefits, however, organizations are going to have to take some important steps into a new world.