Verification and validation of digital twins: a systematic literature review for manufacturing applications

Julia Bitencourt, Ana Wooley and Gregory Harris

International Journal of Production Research, 2025, vol. 63, issue 1, 342-370

Abstract: Digital Twin (DT) is a concept of growing interest, driven by the technological advancements related to Industry 4.0. DT combines innovative technologies to create a virtual model replicating the physical system and allowing bi-directional data flow. However, to use DTs in support of decision-making, it is essential to have trust in the model and all components of the DT throughout its development. Verification and Validation (V&V) have traditionally been employed to assess models’ credibility, providing a venue for the development of trust. Therefore, V&V are essential foundations for developing DTs that can support decisions in real-world environments. Through a systematic literature review, this research investigated whether and how researchers are employing V&V in DTs for manufacturing applications. It was concluded that very little research was reported to have performed both verification and validation of the developed DTs. The study also examined the most commonly used V&V techniques and explored their relationship with DT capability level and application areas. It was concluded that there is a lack of standard procedures to conduct V&V and a lack of agreement on the V&V objectives. This research uncovers the main challenges to verifying and validating DTs and future research directions to develop trusted DTs.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00207543.2024.2357741 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tprsxx:v:63:y:2025:i:1:p:342-370

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/TPRS20

DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2024.2357741

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Production Research is currently edited by Professor A. Dolgui

More articles in International Journal of Production Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().