Design Principles for Shared Digital Twins in Distributed Systems

Abstract

Digital Twins offer considerable potential for cross-company networks. Recent research primarily focuses on using Digital Twins within the limits of a single organization. However, Shared Digital Twins extend application boundaries to cross-company utilization through their ability to act as a hub to share data. This results in the need to consider additional design dimensions which help practitioners design Digital Twins tailored for inter-company use. The article addresses precisely that issue as it investigates how Shared Digital Twins should be designed to achieve business success. For this purpose, the article proposes a set of design principles for Shared Digital Twins stemming from a qualitative interview study with 18 industry experts. The interview study is the primary data source for formulating and evaluating the design principles.

Simple Design Approach for Shared Digital Twins

“…The main objective of this paper is to develop design principles for Shared Digital Twins. The approach followed here bases on the publication by Haße et al (2022). In the context of this publication, however, the authors choose a different approach.…”

Dark Patterns

“…In order to develop unified design principles, it is necessary to incorporate more ethical considerations into design science methodologies, both in the design process and artifact creation. In particular, engaging in deontological reasoning for design science research contributes to existing design science research within the BISE/IS community (e.g., Haße et al 2022;Diederich et al 2020) and may lead to unified design principles that prevent the creation of dark patterns in the first place. This is especially important because technological advancements will lead to novel applications of dark patterns like for example in conversational agents, virtual reality, and the metaverse (e.g., Wohlgenannt et al 2020).…”

Towards a digital twin for supporting multi-agency incident management in a smart city

“…Smart cities use information and communication technologies, remote sensing and insitu sensors to autonomously collect and store current information on environmental conditions 18 – 21 . As the knowledge of a digital twin grows over its lifecycle, it can help generate significant long-term value from raw data across different domains 22 , such as transport: Traffic signals connect to vehicles equipped with on-board units to adjust the green signal, thus, improving bus service for passengers and reducing congestion at key intersections 23 ; Environment: Sensors measure the air to implement measures to curb pollution and improve quality of life 24 ; Public safety: Personal hazard alerts triggered by proximity systems help to inform construction workers of potential risks, such as overhead dangers, i.e. creating a safer working environment 25 ; Infrastructure: Sensors help to monitor the condition of infrastructures, e.g.…”

“…sewers in flood-prone areas, to provide timely notification of potential flooding events 26 . Currently, such smart city applications are usually independent systems that run isolated and do not exchange data across their systems with other domains 22 . For a digital twin to realise its full benefit, it must enable information sharing and collaboration vertically within the company’s information systems and horizontally across multiple stakeholder groups 22 .…”

“…Currently, such smart city applications are usually independent systems that run isolated and do not exchange data across their systems with other domains 22 . For a digital twin to realise its full benefit, it must enable information sharing and collaboration vertically within the company’s information systems and horizontally across multiple stakeholder groups 22 . Connecting interdependent data across these boundaries can provide a more comprehensive operational picture and enable more efficient and informed decision support, which demonstrates the real opportunity of what a smart city can deliver.…”