The Digital Twin: Visualizing its Potential
Advancements in technology have enabled businesses to harness the power of simulating end-to-end workflows for their products & processes. Enabling them to build quicker, with less upfront costs, and allowing for seamless collaboration. This is where the digital twin comes into play.
A digital twin is the virtual representation of a physical object, process, or place. This allows users to simulate, predict, and optimize products or production systems before investing in physical components and assets. Product development teams can continually iterate on their product without the need for expendable materials, testing in different environments, etc.
How Can Businesses Leverage a Digital Twin?
According to the report Digital Twin Market by Enterprise, Application, Industry and Geography - Global Forecast to 2027, “the digital twin market is expected to grow from USD $6.9 billion in 2022 to USD $73.5 billion by 2027; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 60.6% from 2022 to 2027”.
As the digital twin market grows exponentially, what are some doing today to leverage the power of their digital twin? Notice how the creators of Nemo’s Garden are building their underwater biosphere off the coast of Noli Italy with the use of Siemens products.
A comprehensive digital twin of the Nemo’s Garden biosphere has been built encompassing not only its design evolution using Siemens NX software, but also enables simulation of the growing conditions within it, the impact of the equipment on the body of water, as well as the full environment in which they are installed – all accomplished using Siemens Simcenter STAR-CCM+ software.
According to Luca Gamberini, Co-Founder, of Nemo’s Garden, “we have seen benefits in understanding the flow of water around the shapes of our biospheres. We have a greater understanding of the points of stress on the structure around the biospheres. We also understand how the different interactions of solar radiation, the temperature, and all the physical factors, act on the plants. All thanks to the ability of the digital twin to replicate our system.”
Hence, the Nemo’s Garden team is no longer limited by weather conditions, seasonality, and short growing seasons or limitations on diving and monitoring. Adaptations to the biospheres can be tested in the virtual world, enabling the team to refine the design at a massively accelerated rate.
Real-Time Data Analytics
Data and analytics are the foundation of digital twin technology. The key element of a digital twin includes the ability to monitor and model a real-world object. Real-world objects with the help of sensors, IoT devices, and other data tracking devices, can help your digital twin best replicate your real-world object. With data captured from real-world objects, we can gain insight into performance prediction, process optimization, and quality assurance.
Across Industries
From Automotive, Manufacturing, Healthcare, and everything in between, industries of all sorts can benefit from the use of a digital twin.
For example, in the Healthcare industry progressions have been made to capture the human body as a digital twin. This will have multiple benefits for doctors such as; discovering undeveloped illnesses, experimenting with treatments, and improving preparation for surgeries. Body parts such as the brain, however, are far more complex than the heart. France based start-up ‘Sim&Cure’ have made advances in assisting medical researchers’ treatment of brains while developing a digital patient for treating aneurysms.
Benefits & The Future of the Digital Twin
Low upfront costs and the ridding of physical assets have allowed businesses to scale quicker. Virtual environments help employers to keep their employees safe, and encourages collaboration. All while helping businesses bring their products and/or processes to the market faster with a clear ROI.
As the digital twin market continues to grow, we’re excited to see many industries benefit from this technology. This will pave the way for businesses to build digital enterprises that enables them to meet the demands of the market and their customers.
