Digital Twins (DT). A DT is a digital duplication of entities with real-time two-way communication enabled between the physical and cyber spaces. It aims to support integration of IoT for connecting the physical and virtual spaces. In the illustrated case the physical twin is defined as an areo-engine, the virtual entities of areo-engine include CAD models, FEM models etc.
Cognitive Twins (CT). DTs are expected to support the industrial areas of design, production, prognostics, asset health management, etc. Each DT has different models which are difficult to manage, because the model versions are updated along the lifecycle. Moreover, the virtual models in a DT are across domains, which makes difficult to identify their interrelationships. The CT is proposed to solve this challenge. One timestamp for each lifecycle spot is added to each virtual model. Moreover, topologies of models are described. Based on semantics web techniques, the topologies of models are described for decision-making support of complex system development based on DTs with applications in critical domains such as maintenance of complex engineering assets.
