Over the past three to four years, the use of Digital Twins has expanded from industrial research & development to sectors such as urban planning, earth science, and 5G. Today, an increasing number of organisations are developing and implementing Digital Twins blueprints. What has led to the growing popularity of Digital Twins and why are organisations investing in this technology?

A Digital Twin is commonly defined as a real-time virtual representation of a physical asset. In other words, it is the digital counterpart of a physical device or object that data scientists and technology professionals use to identify, avert, forecast, and augment innovation processes through real time analytics.

Until a few years ago, Digital Twins were primarily used by manufacturers for quality checks, supply chain management, predictive maintenance etc. For example, engineers would examine virtual representations of machinery to predict problem areas before a breakdown occurs in reality or find ways to minimise unscheduled maintenance works. However, aided by its unique ability to connect the physical and digital worlds and drive real-time operational efficiencies, the use of Digital Twins has expanded into sectors such as urban planning, earth science and telecommunications in recent years.

The formation of the Digital Twins Consortium, a global ecosystem of industry, academia and governments to accelerate the use of Digital Twins across sectors, is a testament to this technology’s growing popularity. Founded by multinational corporations such as General Electric (GE), Dell Technologies and Microsoft, the Consortium has over 150 members and its goal is to promote “cross-industry collaboration while providing a forum to respond to the challenges of digital twin technologies”.

According to GE, its engineers use Digital Twin blueprints to monitor over 7,000 physical assets around the world for maintenance, data collection, investigations and improvements in overall business delivery. Thanks to early error notifications, reduced unplanned downtime and increased use of data analytics, GE claims its customers have saved US$ 1.5 billion in operations and maintenance costs. GE currently uses Digital Twins for power generation equipment, offshore oil rigs, jet engines, wind farms, compressors and chillers among other things.

Telecommunications operators, particularly those working with 5G technologies, are another set of innovators that recently joined the Digital Twin bandwagon. Digital Twins enable 5G operators to test network rollouts even without visiting the site or building cell towers. This can directly lead to reduction in time and cost spent on network deployment, as well as significant improvements in the entire lifecycle of networks, including planning, design, deployment and optimisation. In addition, network operators can use Digital Twins to examine how networks and cells are likely to respond to the impact of extreme weather, aging infrastructure and fast-growing consumer-base.

Consulting firm Accenture uses Digital Twins to help clients decide which geographical location has the most potential for 5G rollouts. This includes assessing a broad range of factors such as the competitor landscape, both existing and potential customer base, topography etc., to determine the company’s return on investment from 5G rollouts. Using Digital Twins blueprints, Accenture combines and compares data about population segments, demographics, competitor performance and business firmographics on a single platform with the help of visualisations and analysis.

Digital Twins are also being used in the global fight against climate crisis. The Earth Archive, a recently established environmental conservation initiative, is now creating a Digital Twin of the entire surface of the Earth. In its first phase, The Earth Archive will create a Digital Twin of the Amazon Basin region with the help of very high-resolution lidar to assess the region’s indigenous history, ecological diversity, vulnerabilities etc. In the future, digitally preserved landscapes of the entire planet will be developed, which can not only add value to the work of anthropologists, archaeologists and conservationists, but also provide much-needed information to policy-makers to help advance sustainable economic development.

Urban planners are also finding Digital Twins to be an effective tool, particularly in the areas of construction, environmental assessments and traffic management. Administrators in Singapore have created Digital Twin replicas of the country by combining data on terrains and structures – sourced from Geographic Information Systems (GIS) – and data on new and proposed constructions –sourced from Building Information Management (BIM).

City planners believe that these blueprints will allow them to identify the potential impacts of new constructions and demographic changes. Specifically, Singapore authorities are using pilot tests to examine how microwaves travel through high-density regions and thereby perceive gaps in cellular network coverage. In addition, Digital Twins are being used by the government to assess and predict floods, rising sea levels and changes to water engineering systems.