Digital Twin Conceptual Model within the Context of Internet of Things

A. R. Al-Ali, Ragini Gupta, Tasneem Zaman Batool, Taha Landolsi, Fadi Aloul and Ahmad Al Nabulsi
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A. R. Al-Ali: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah 26666, UAE
Ragini Gupta: Department of Computer Science, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409, USA
Tasneem Zaman Batool: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah 26666, UAE
Taha Landolsi: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah 26666, UAE
Fadi Aloul: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah 26666, UAE
Ahmad Al Nabulsi: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah 26666, UAE

Future Internet, 2020, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-15

Abstract: As the Internet of Things (IoT) is gaining ground and becoming increasingly popular in smart city applications such as smart energy, smart buildings, smart factories, smart transportation, smart farming, and smart healthcare, the digital twin concept is evolving as complementary to its counter physical part. While an object is on the move, its operational and surrounding environmental parameters are collected by an edge computing device for local decision. A virtual replica of such object (digital twin) is based in the cloud computing platform and hosts the real-time physical object data, 2D and 3D models, historical data, and bill of materials (BOM) for further processing, analytics, and visualization. This paper proposes an end-to-end digital twin conceptual model that represents its complementary physical object from the ground to the cloud. The paper presents the proposed digital twin model’s multi-layers, namely, physical, communication, virtual space, data analytic and visualization, and application as well as the overlapping security layer. The hardware and software technologies that are used in building such a model will be explained in detail. A use case will be presented to show how the layers collect, exchange, and process the physical object data from the ground to the cloud.

Keywords: Internet of Things; digital twins; smart cities; big data analytics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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