Digital Twin in Aerospace Industry: A Gentle Introduction

Abstract

Digital twin (DT), primarily a virtual replica of any conceivable physical entity, is a highly transformative technology with profound implications. Whether it be a product development, design optimisation, performance improvement, or predictive maintenance, digital twins are changing the ways work is undertaken in various industries with multifarious business applications. Aerospace industry, including its manufacturing base, is one such keen adopter of digital twins with an unprecedented interest in their bespoke design, development, and implementation across wider operations and critical functions. This, however, comes with some misconceptions about the digital twin technology and lack of understanding with respect to its optimal implementation. For instance, equating digital twin to an intelligent model while ignoring the essential components of data acquisition and visualisation, misleads the creators into building digital shadow or digital models, instead of the actual digital twin. This paper unfolds such intricacies of digital twin technology for the aerospace community in particular and others in general so as to remove the fallacies that affect their effective realisation for safety-critical systems. It comprises a comprehensive survey of digital twins and their constituent elements. Elaborating their characteristic stateof-the-art composition along with corresponding limitations, three dimensions of the future digital twins for aerospace sector, termed as aero-Digital Twins (aero-DTs), are proposed as an outcome of this survey. These include the interactive, standardisation, and cognitive dimensions of digital twins, which if leveraged diligently could help the aero-DT research and development community quadruple the efficiency of existing and future aerospace systems as well as their associated processes.

Digital Twin: Where do humans fit in?

“…Owing to its usefulness, DT has spread to many industries and has emerged as a key concept for digital transformation in the construction [41][42][43][44], manufacturing [20,45,46], and aerospace [47,48] industries. It has shown a significant promise to increase productivity, reduce operational costs, improve safety, and optimize asset sustainability in these industries [49].…”

Graphene nanoparticles as data generating digital materials in industry 4.0

“…Apart from these advantages, these simulations can be used to generate datasets to be used in training and creating machine learning models. Although, such simulations cannot be performed in real-time, machine learning models based on the synthetic data can be useful 91 . The capabilities of digital twin are sometimes enhanced with the Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies 92 that enable human–machine interactions 93 , 94 .…”

Empowering 6G Communication Systems With Digital Twin Technology: A Comprehensive Survey

“…DT technology is regarded as one of the essential tools for smart cities because it enables cities to be analyzed, planned, managed, monitored, and optimized across a broad range of applications, including mobility and sustainability [22]. In aviation, DT technology enables the construction of a three-dimensional virtual model of an airplane (or a part of one) for the purpose of conducting various types of experiments to predict the outcomes of avionics processes and operations under varying weather and environmental conditions, thereby undoubtedly improving passenger safety, product quality, and design cost [35]. Finally, the potential use of DT technology in healthcare could create a digital replica of human physiology, medical devices, drugs, and chemical substances, enabling doctors, clinicians, and scientists to diagnose a variety of severe and life-threatening diseases, improve treatment planning, provide patient-specific treatment, and conduct research on new diseases and drugs, among other things [11].…”