Prototyping a Digital Twin for Real Time Remote Control Over Mobile Networks: Application of Remote Surgery

Abstract

The concept of digital twin (DT) has emerged to enable the benefits of future paradigms such as the industrial Internet of Things and Industry 4.0. The idea is to bring every data source and control interface description related to a product or process available through a single interface, for auto-discovery and automated communication establishment. However, designing the architecture of a DT to serve every future application is an ambitious task. Therefore, the prototyping systems for specific applications are required to design the DT incrementally. We developed a novel DT prototype to analyze the requirements of communication in a mission-critical application such as mobile networks supported remote surgery. Such operations require low latency and high levels of security and reliability and therefore are a perfect subject for analyzing DT communication and cybersecurity. The system comprised of a robotic arm and HTC vive virtual reality (VR) system connected over a 4G mobile network. More than 70 test users were employed to assess the system. To address the cybersecurity of the system, we incorporated a network manipulation module to test the effect of network outages and attacks; we studied state of the art practices and their utilization within DTs. The capability of the system for actual remote surgery is limited by capabilities of the VR system and insufficient feedback from the robot. However, simulations and research of remote surgeries could be conducted with the system. As a result, we propose ideas for communication establishment and necessary cybersecurity technologies that will help in developing the DT architecture. Furthermore, we concluded that developing the DT requires cross-disciplinary development in several different engineering fields. Each field makes use of its own tools and methods, which do not always fit together perfectly. This is a potentially major obstacle in the realization of Industry 4.0 and similar concepts.INDEX TERMS Digital twin, virtual reality, robot control, mobile networks, network security.

Digital Twin: Enabling Technologies, Challenges and Open Research

“…The use of these models serves a purpose, but they are not using real-time parameters which limit the predictability and learnability. The Digital Twin can be learning and monitoring simultaneously, as well as applying machine and deep learning algorithms [32] [33] [34] [35].…”

“…The order of the areas presented reflects the level of current research in terms of the number of papers found. For healthcare, the number of papers found is limited, but the potentially life-changing benefits Digital Twins can have on the healthcare industry are prevalent [84] [32] [39] [40]. Next closely is the smart city area with a small number of papers found.…”

“…In another more recent setting, Laaki et al [32] present a working prototype of autonomous surgery harnessing IoT and Industry 4.0 connectivity to create a Digital Twin of a patient. The authors propose a remote surgery application through a mobile network.…”

“…From day-to-day healthcare to ongoing health conditions, the Digital Twin can be used in a similar way to PHM, combining data analytics to ensure patients are healthy. [32] presents open research relating to surgery; using historical data with current real-time data for Digital Twin simulations of surgery and overall healthcare. The aim is to spot risks before they arise using the virtual twin of the patient.…”

Digital Twin: Values, Challenges and Enablers From a Modeling Perspective

“…The authors in [13] explained a "computational man" vision, which is a dynamic fast-running computational model of major physiological systems, such as the circulatory, respiratory or excretory system in a human body. In the prototype for remote surgery [9], the authors highlighted the importance of low latency, high level of security and reliability hinting at how important role communication technologies (like 5G) and cybersecurity (encryption technologies) are going to play. Efficient Computer Aided Modeling (CAM) and Virtual Reality (VR) will also be instrumental in this context.…”