Digital Twins: at the Core of NDE 4.0

According to MedicineNet, a twin is one of two children produced from the same pregnancy. Twins who develop from a single ovum are called monozygotic, or identical, twins. They share identical genomes. As a result, the study of twins has become a key tool in behavioral science. This inspired a parallel approach to understanding the behavior of physical assets at the turn of this century. An (ideal) digital twin is a virtual representation of an asset and—like a mono-zygotic twin—it shows the same behavior and development as the asset. An asset could be a manufacturing device, sensor, component, product, system, process, service, operation, inspection, plant, business, enterprise, software, or even a person, operator, inspector, or engineer. A digital twin connects the physical world with the cyber world. Digital twins can be used for behavioral or developmental studies of the asset represented. Digital twins can be differentiated by the type of asset they represent, such as production facilities, production equipment, assembled products, components, inspection systems, devices, sensors, or operators. Digital twins can also be layered and allow inheritance. For example, a digital twin of a production facility can contain the digital twins of all the production equipment and inspection systems within that facility. Similarly, the digital twin of an inspection system may include the digital twins of sources, sensors, detectors, and manipulators.