What Is A Digital Twin?
On December 3, 2020, the Digital Twin Consortium released the definition of a digital twin. The goal of the definition is to establish a foundation for the emerging industry and a launching pad for its future progress, driven by consensus among our members, the definition unifies industry stakeholders and speeds our members' time to market.
/ dig•i•tal twin /
noun
1. A digital twin is a virtual representation of real-world entities and processes, synchronized at a specified frequency and fidelity.
- Digital twin systems transform business by accelerating holistic understanding, optimal decision-making, and effective action.
- Digital twins use real-time and historical data to represent the past and present and simulate predicted futures.
- Digital twins are motivated by outcomes, tailored to use cases, powered by integration, built on data, guided by domain knowledge, and implemented in IT/OT systems.
The process of developing the definition involved an industry cross-section of digital domain specialists, an extensive review of documentation on the subject, and a stress test of the definition based on real-world use cases. The result is an authoritative definition that leverages our collective established knowledge on the topic, is widely and formally agreed upon, and is validated against practical considerations.
A breakdown of the terms used in the definition and decisions behind the definition are published in the DTC Reflections blog.
This initiative: