Architecting Digital Twins

Abstract

In 2002, Grieves defined the concept of the digital twin as a virtual instance of physical assets capable of continuously mirroring them. Ever since then, driven by remarkable industrial attention, digital twins flourished and ripened in several sectors. The notable industrial adoption has been sided by a growing interest from the software engineering community in general and the software architecture community in particular as demonstrated by the growing number of published peer-reviewed publications and proposed software architectural solutions for digital twins. In this paper, we report on the planning, execution, and results of a systematic mapping study on architecting digital twins. The study captures crucial aspects of software architectures for digital twins as types of architectural solutions, quality attributes, and architectural patterns. It supports practitioners in creating digital twins tailored to their specific needs and researchers in identifying trends and open challenges. Starting from an initial set of potentially relevant 1630 peer-reviewed publications, we selected 140 primary studies. We analysed the set of primary studies using thorough data extraction, analysis, and synthesis process. To compensate for single method limitations and reduce possible threats to conclusion validity, we discussed the results of our study with experts in the software architecture community. Based on our results, the field of software architecture for digital twins is lively and an increasing number of architectural solutions are being proposed. Although there is a lack of widely accepted reference architectural solutions for digital twins, most of them are built using a combination of the layered and service-oriented patterns and address maintainability, performance efficiency, and compatibility quality attributes.INDEX TERMS Architectural patterns, digital twin, software architectures, quality attributes.

Digital Twins for Anomaly Detection in the Industrial Internet of Things: Conceptual Architecture and Proof-of-Concept

“…Software architectures are fundamental in the engineering process of software-intensive systems such as DTs. Nevertheless, there is limited discussion in the related literature about formalized DT architectures [17], [18], [19]. Furthermore, the majority of DT studies proposes domain-specific architectural solutions [17] (e.g., Barenji et al [20] presented a DT-based approach for smart manufacturing focusing on energy consumption).…”

“…Nevertheless, there is limited discussion in the related literature about formalized DT architectures [17], [18], [19]. Furthermore, the majority of DT studies proposes domain-specific architectural solutions [17] (e.g., Barenji et al [20] presented a DT-based approach for smart manufacturing focusing on energy consumption). This has to do with the complexity of identifying the different components involved in DT operation and their functionalities.…”

“…According to a recent snapshot of existing software architecture proposals for DTs [17], the most recurring pattern is the layered one, in which each level has a specific role and responsibility. This reduces dependency and increases flexibility and modularity, so that complexity can be addressed more effectively.…”

“…This reduces dependency and increases flexibility and modularity, so that complexity can be addressed more effectively. Many layered DT architectures have been proposed in the literature in different contexts [17]. The most recurring patterns are based on:…”

“…The VS layer hosts the virtual replica of the real system. According to Schroeder et al [32], the DT components that are strictly necessary are: 1) the Models that digitally represent the CPS, whose roles can be descriptive, predictive and prescriptive (normative) [33]; 2) an Event Source that generates information and/or commands to the physical system; and 3) An integrated software platform can be built upon the DT, including all the sub-services providing solutions to specific requests from PS and VS layers [17]. Therefore, the Ss layer includes the set of functionalities needed for offering the services that leverage the DT technology, e.g., simulation, real-time monitoring, and prediction [13].…”