Digital Twin’s Anatomy: A Cross-Sector Framework With Healthcare Validation
Digital twins (DT) in manufacturing, healthcare, and across different industrial domains are often over-simplified as solely a virtual representation of a physical object or service. Such a definition constitutes a dilemma in distinguishing DTs from digital models, digital shadows, digital threads,...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IEEE
2025-01-01
|
| Series: | IEEE Access |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10838529/ |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1832540533043494912 |
|---|---|
| author | Sina Namaki Araghi Zhengyu Liu Arkopaul Sarkar Thierry Louge Mohamed Hedi Karray |
| author_facet | Sina Namaki Araghi Zhengyu Liu Arkopaul Sarkar Thierry Louge Mohamed Hedi Karray |
| author_sort | Sina Namaki Araghi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Digital twins (DT) in manufacturing, healthcare, and across different industrial domains are often over-simplified as solely a virtual representation of a physical object or service. Such a definition constitutes a dilemma in distinguishing DTs from digital models, digital shadows, digital threads, and cyber-physical systems. In this article, we aim to elucidate the concept of digital twins and its definition. Therefore, we go through the connotation of digital twins, which has its roots in space exploration and product-life cycle management, and describe the four evolution stages of DT developments. This article employs an ontological approach to clearly and comprehensively define digital twins and related key concepts, including digital models, assets, prototypes, shadows, and threads. Additionally, it presents a structured framework detailing the meta-model and the reference-level ontology of digital twins. To evaluate the proposed structure, definitions, and its important entities, we have examined our framework against 73 peer-reviewed papers in the healthcare sector from 2018 until July 2024. The evaluation and classification criteria of the selected works were based on four research questions. These criteria are driven by the core definitions provided by the main cross-domain digital twin researchers and this article’s proposed anatomy of digital twins. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-67e886ef7b0f42f7ab9e425542600995 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2169-3536 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Access |
| spelling | doaj-art-67e886ef7b0f42f7ab9e4255426009952025-02-05T00:01:01ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-0113213062133410.1109/ACCESS.2025.352873610838529Digital Twin’s Anatomy: A Cross-Sector Framework With Healthcare ValidationSina Namaki Araghi0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9075-1419Zhengyu Liu1Arkopaul Sarkar2Thierry Louge3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3709-1976Mohamed Hedi Karray4Production Engineering Laboratory (LGP), Engineering School (ENIT), Tarbes University of Technology (UTTOP), Tarbes, FranceProduction Engineering Laboratory (LGP), Engineering School (ENIT), Tarbes University of Technology (UTTOP), Tarbes, FranceProduction Engineering Laboratory (LGP), Engineering School (ENIT), Tarbes University of Technology (UTTOP), Tarbes, FranceProduction Engineering Laboratory (LGP), Engineering School (ENIT), Tarbes University of Technology (UTTOP), Tarbes, FranceProduction Engineering Laboratory (LGP), Engineering School (ENIT), Tarbes University of Technology (UTTOP), Tarbes, FranceDigital twins (DT) in manufacturing, healthcare, and across different industrial domains are often over-simplified as solely a virtual representation of a physical object or service. Such a definition constitutes a dilemma in distinguishing DTs from digital models, digital shadows, digital threads, and cyber-physical systems. In this article, we aim to elucidate the concept of digital twins and its definition. Therefore, we go through the connotation of digital twins, which has its roots in space exploration and product-life cycle management, and describe the four evolution stages of DT developments. This article employs an ontological approach to clearly and comprehensively define digital twins and related key concepts, including digital models, assets, prototypes, shadows, and threads. Additionally, it presents a structured framework detailing the meta-model and the reference-level ontology of digital twins. To evaluate the proposed structure, definitions, and its important entities, we have examined our framework against 73 peer-reviewed papers in the healthcare sector from 2018 until July 2024. The evaluation and classification criteria of the selected works were based on four research questions. These criteria are driven by the core definitions provided by the main cross-domain digital twin researchers and this article’s proposed anatomy of digital twins.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10838529/Digital twinsdigital threadsmodel-based system engineeringcyber-physical systemsontologydigital transformation |
| spellingShingle | Sina Namaki Araghi Zhengyu Liu Arkopaul Sarkar Thierry Louge Mohamed Hedi Karray Digital Twin’s Anatomy: A Cross-Sector Framework With Healthcare Validation IEEE Access Digital twins digital threads model-based system engineering cyber-physical systems ontology digital transformation |
| title | Digital Twin’s Anatomy: A Cross-Sector Framework With Healthcare Validation |
| title_full | Digital Twin’s Anatomy: A Cross-Sector Framework With Healthcare Validation |
| title_fullStr | Digital Twin’s Anatomy: A Cross-Sector Framework With Healthcare Validation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Digital Twin’s Anatomy: A Cross-Sector Framework With Healthcare Validation |
| title_short | Digital Twin’s Anatomy: A Cross-Sector Framework With Healthcare Validation |
| title_sort | digital twin x2019 s anatomy a cross sector framework with healthcare validation |
| topic | Digital twins digital threads model-based system engineering cyber-physical systems ontology digital transformation |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10838529/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sinanamakiaraghi digitaltwinx2019sanatomyacrosssectorframeworkwithhealthcarevalidation AT zhengyuliu digitaltwinx2019sanatomyacrosssectorframeworkwithhealthcarevalidation AT arkopaulsarkar digitaltwinx2019sanatomyacrosssectorframeworkwithhealthcarevalidation AT thierrylouge digitaltwinx2019sanatomyacrosssectorframeworkwithhealthcarevalidation AT mohamedhedikarray digitaltwinx2019sanatomyacrosssectorframeworkwithhealthcarevalidation |