The Future of Digital Twins: Simulating Complex Systems for a Better Tomorrow
Consider your drive to work. How much traffic you encounter will depend on a number of factors: the weather on any given day; the quality of public transport and cycle routes; the efficiency of the town planning in your city; how many people can afford to live within walking distance of their workplace, and so on. You can think of the workings of a city and how people move around it as a complex, dynamic system that is always reacting to changing circumstances. If we can better understand this system and visualize how it works, we can make decisions to improve its efficiency. And that’s where digital twins come in.
A digital twin is a computational model of a complex system that is continually updated with real-world data. The system being modelled could be a city, a manufacturing process, some industrial machinery or even biological systems within the human body. By creating a simulation of a system, we can experiment with potential improvements to see how well they work before trying them in the real world. We can discover and understand connections between different parts of the system that were previously invisible to us. We can predict potential points of failure and take action before problems arise, and we can develop new products and medicines.
Digital twins are being applied in a vast range of different scenarios and are giving us new ways to solve problems and find efficiencies. Here are just some of the things we can expect to happen in the future.
Whole cities will be simulated digitally
In some places, it’s already happening. For example, Virtual Singapore is a highly detailed 3D model and digital twin of the city-state that uses real-time data to model everything that’s going on. Millions of photographs and laser scans were used to capture the topography and urban environment to create a 3D replica. Data from mobile phones, sensors placed in the environment, and other sources is used to keep the model up to date.
Digital twins will bring many different data sets and technologies together
It is often the case that a lot of information is held about a system, but it’s all in separate silos with no good way of bringing it all together. Digital twins can be that way. For example, a digital twin of a city brings together visual information such as laser scans, photographs, and 3D models, and combines it with geographical information, spatial analytics, real estate data, human metrics, and predictive simulations.
Your whole body might get a digital twin
Biological processes are possibly the most complex systems we have to deal with, so there’s plenty to be gained from building digital simulations of them. Biochemists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are working on a digital twin of the human immune system which they hope will predict how a patient might respond to different treatments. It is also hoped that it will improve understanding of disease processes and aid in the development of new medicines.
It will happen sooner than you think
According to a 2023 survey of “scientists, futurists, and subject matter experts” by Tata Consultancy Services, digital twins are set to “become commonplace across business and society by 2035”. Half of the experts thought that “broad adoption” will occur in the healthcare sector within three years, although the full body digital twins are more likely to materialize towards the end of the ten-year timeline.
Conclusion
Digital twins promise a future where the complex systems that govern our lives come with a virtual safety net, so we can predict problems before they arise and try out solutions without facing risk.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is a digital twin?
A: A digital twin is a computational model of a complex system that is continually updated with real-world data.
Q: What are digital twins used for?
A: Digital twins are used to improve and optimize complex systems, predict potential points of failure, and develop new products and medicines.
Q: How do digital twins work?
A: Digital twins work by creating a simulation of a system, which can be used to experiment with potential improvements and see how well they work before trying them in the real world.
Q: What are some examples of digital twins?
A: Some examples of digital twins include Virtual Singapore, a 3D model of the city-state, and digital twins of the human immune system and the human heart.
