Digital Twinning for Resilience in the Transport Sector

Digital Twins may just be the most important aspect of Artificial Intelligence that you’ve never heard of, yet. As the name hints at, a Digital Twin or DT for short, is a digital replica of a physical thing. It could be anything from an aircraft to a bridge or even a more complex system like a hospital or a road network. The crucial key is that – distinguishing a DT from a mere digital ‘model’ or ‘shadow’ – there is a bidirectional data flow between the DT and the Physical Twin (PT). The physical version sends data to the DT, which can be analysed using algorithms, machine learning or neural nets, and is then linked back to the physical twin. In this way the physical world affects the digital twin, and the DT in turn can make changes and affect the physical twin and hence the physical world. This process can be repeated ad infinitum and the DT can be used to optimise the efficiency or performance of the PT.