A digital twin is a current representation or model of a physical component, system of components or system of systems. Some examples include a vehicle, an engine or manufacturing line. The model reflects the condition of the asset and includes data on its history. Digital twins are used to assess the up to date condition of the asset, predict future behaviour and streamline operations.
Many sectors use this technology, including smart manufacturing, power utilities, smart grids, smart buildings and smart cities. Thanks to digital twins, organizations can solve physical issues faster by detecting them sooner and predict outcomes to a much higher degree of accuracy, as well as build better products.
The Joint ISO and IEC Technical Committee (JTC 1), which was set up to develop worldwide information and communication technology (ICT) standards for business and consumer applications, is moving ahead in this area. One of its subcommittees, SC 41, which prepares standards for the IoT has widened its scope and terms of reference to include digital twin, building on the exploratory work of a JTC 1 Advisory Group.
“Digital twin is a truly horizontal topic which has implications for many IEC TCs but also for other Standard Development Organizations (SDOs) like ISO and ITU,” says SC 41 Chair François Coallier. After getting the mandate from JTC 1, the subcommittee moved very fast to set up a new working group, which will be initially working on concepts and vocabulary, on use cases and on a reference architecture.
“One of its first tasks will be to come up with a generic definition of digital twin and related terms,” he explains.
In addition to the working group, SC 41 established an advisory group (AG 27) related to the technology, which is expected to identify synergies with existing SC 41 activities and relationships as well as elaborate a standardization strategy. The group will especially address life-cycle issues, standardization opportunities in virtual systems, devices and sensors.
Another remit will be to identify possible partnerships and joint activities within JTC 1, ISO and IEC as well as with other SDOs and external consortia.
“SC 41 was very agile and showed a lot of interest in this topic. We organized a workshop on the digital twin topic in a very short two-week timeframe and we welcomed 100 participants. WG 6 has already more than 100 members from all around the world,” Coallier says.
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