In 1970, the Apollo 13 mission suffered a terrible mid-flight malfunction. To diagnose and remediate the problem, Nasa engineers built a ‘mirrored’ system to simulate the spacecraft and test various courses of action before deciding what to do next. The astronauts were saved, largely thanks to what many believe is the first example of a ‘digital twin’ being employed to solve a problem.
With innovations in artificial intelligence and simulation modelling, today’s digital twin technology looks very different. Enabling something of a virtual testing laboratory, a digital twin will run alongside and in constant sync with a live system and offers the prospect of real-time monitoring as well as improvements in process efficiency. Fed by data from across an organisation's workflow and ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems, the model creates an accurate replica of operations and processes that planners can use to run simulations. By playing around with configurations...