Model‐Driven Engineering for Digital Twins: Opportunities and Challenges
Systems Engineering, vol. 28, pp. 659–670
Abstract
ABSTRACT Digital twins are increasingly used across a wide range of industries. Modeling is a key to digital twin development—both when considering the models which a digital twin maintains of its real‐world complement (“models in digital twin”) and when considering models of the digital twin as a complex (software) system itself. Thus, systematic development and maintenance of these models is a key factor in effective and efficient digital twin development, maintenance, and use. We argue that model‐driven engineering (MDE), a field with almost three decades of research, will be essential for improving the efficiency and reliability of future digital twin development. To do so, we present an overview of the digital twin life cycle, identifying the different types of models that should be used and re‐used at different life cycle stages (including systems engineering models of the actual system, domain‐specific simulation models, models of data processing pipelines, etc.). We highlight some approaches in MDE that can help create and manage these models and present a roadmap for research towards MDE of digital twins.
Authors 30
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RWTH Aachen University Aachen Germany
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Stellenbosch University · Eindhoven University of Technology
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Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch South Africa
TU Eindhoven Eindhoven the Netherlands
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King's College London London UK
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Aston University Birmingham UK
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Université de Rennes Rennes France
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King's College London London UK
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Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Université de Rennes
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CNRS, Université de Rennes Rennes France
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Tata Consultancy Services (India)
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TATA Consulting Pune India
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Johannes Kepler University of Linz
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JKU Linz Linz Austria
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Bernhard Rumpe⋆ Aachen
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RWTH Aachen University Aachen Germany
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Johannes Kepler University of Linz
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JKU Linz Linz Austria
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Universität Stuttgart Stuttgart Germany
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Simula Research Laboratory Oslo Norway
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Middlesex University London UK
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Eindhoven University of Technology
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TU Eindhoven Eindhoven the Netherlands
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Durham University Durham UK
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ETS Montréal Canada
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University of South Australia Adelaide Australia
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Vanderbilt University Nashville Tennessee USA
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Universität Stuttgart Stuttgart Germany
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Universität Stuttgart Stuttgart Germany
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University of Málaga Málaga Spain
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University of L'Aquila L'Aquila Italy
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University of Hull Hull UK
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Universität Hamburg Hamburg Germany
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Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems
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HU Berlin Fraunhofer FOKUS Berlin Germany
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University of South Australia Adelaide Australia
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University of Málaga Málaga Spain
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Eindhoven University of Technology
Affiliation as printed
TU Eindhoven Eindhoven the Netherlands
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University of Antwerp · Flanders Make (Belgium)
Affiliation as printed
Flanders Make Lommel/Leuven/Kortrijk Belgium
University of Antwerp Antwerp Belgium
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