Physics-Based Digital Twins Leveraging Competitive Edge in Novel Markets

Abstract

Digital twins (DTs) enable agile and effective changes in product and process development. Physics-based, mature DTs represent the complex human build systems with high accuracy. By accounting for the physical and behavioral limitations, the system can be studied with a holistic approach also by non-simulation expert stakeholders. In particular, the real-time capability physical digital twin can accurately study the machines operated by humans and better integrate human actions into machines. For high-technology products, the utilization of physics-based DTs enables us to explore the design options and their influence on the overall performance, for example, the dynamic behavior of the machine. These design iterations done in the virtual world enable more radical innovations and their implementation as the process inertia of having to manufacture physical prototypes can be reduced or even omitted during the product development phase. While the focus has lied heavily on the product and its performance, i.e., augmentation, more and more developed technologies enable the quantification of business scenarios and the development of organizational structures to support the product autonomously, and as such improve managerial decision-making and leverage innovation capabilities. Thus, the competitive edge of products can be enhanced while customer needs are fulfilled better with physics-based DTs.