Digital Twin Capability

What it Is: Data Acquisition and Ingestion.

Ability

What it Does: The ability to configure and acquire data from different data sources including control system, historians, IoT sensors, smart devices, engineering system, enterprise systems etc.

Purpose

What it Means: The purpose is to acquire data from the physical world, engineering technology systems, and information technology systems to support subsequent processing and insight generation.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Data Streaming.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to transfer of large volumes of data continuously and incrementally between a source and a destination without having to access all data at the same time.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to acquire fast continuous packets of information which is changing at high speed to be able to get near real-time insights.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Data Transformation and Wrangling.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to convert data types and properties through cleaning, structuring and enriching raw data to make if suitable for further processing and analytics.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to make data useable in Digital Twins.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Data Contextualization.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to add language or meta data to enrich real time or transactional data.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to combine data from different sources such as real-time and context to make it suitable for subsequent processing by the digital twin.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Batch Processing.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to execute against previously collected data in bulk form.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to provide is an efficient way of processing high volumes of data in batches or groups.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Real-time processing.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to manage and act on the captured data with minimal latency.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to support immediate insights from the data.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Data PubSub Push.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to package filtered data to different services based on publish / subscribe model.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to provide information to to subscribed digital twin consumers.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Data Aggregation.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to gather raw data and express in a summary form.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to gather data from multiple sources with the intent of combining these data sources into a summary for data analysis.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Synthetic Data Generation.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to generate synthetic data based on patterns and rules in existing sources.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to create representative synthetic data that can used by the digital twin to train and score predictive models.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Ontology Management.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to manage knowledge graphs and ontologies.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to enable a digital twin to interpret data directly from knowledge graphs and ontologies.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Digital Twin Model Repository.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to store, manage and retrieve the meta data that describe the digital twin model. The model can include formal data names, comprehensive data definitions, proper data structures, and precise data integrity rules.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to register and manage a portfolio of Digital Twin models in a central repository to improve configuration management and model governance.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Digital Twin Instance Repository.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to store, manage and retrieve digital twin instance data that conforms to the requirements of the digital twin model.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to store, manage and retrieve Digital Twin instance state data.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Domain Specific Data Management.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to efficiently handle, store, and retrieve data based on the distinct characteristics inherent to specific data types.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to store, manage and retrieve domain-specific data.

Examples/Explanation

This includes the capability to for, example, manage geospatial data with precise locational attributes, temporal data emphasizing time-centric details, and image data capturing visual nuances. Domain-specific data management centers on the ability to cater to the specific intricacies and demands of each unique data domain. See User Guide for more information.

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Data Storage and Archive Services.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to store, organize and retrieve data based on how frequently it will be accessed and how long it will be retained.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to reduce the cost and effort of managing Digital Twin data by using hot, cold and archival data services.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Simulation Model Repository.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to store, manage and retrieve the algorithmic codebase, business rules and meta data that describe a simulation model.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to register and manage a portfolio of simulation models in a central repository to improve configuration management and model governance.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

AI Model Repository.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to store, manage, search and retrieve the algorithmic codebase that describe an artificial intelligence (AI) model or machine learning (ML) model.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to register and manage a portfolio of AI and machine learning models in a central repository to improve configuration management and model governance.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Enterprise system integration.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to integrate the digital twin with existing enterprise such as ERP, EAM, CRM, CMMS.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to integrate business applications that enables data to flow between Digital Twin systems with ease.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Engineering systems integration.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to integrate the digital twin with existing engineering systems such as CAD, CAM, BIM, Historians.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to integrate engineering applications that enables model use and data to flow between Digital Twin systems with ease.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

OT/IoT system integration.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to integrate directly with control systems and IOT devices/sensors, SCADA.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to integrate operation technology (OT) and IoT applications that data to flow between Digital Twin systems with ease.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Digital Twin Integration.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to integrate or access information from existing digital twin instances.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to integrate Digital Twin applications with one another to enable interoperable Digital Twins.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Collaboration platform integration.

What it Does

Ability

The ability for the digital twin to interface with platforms like Yammer, Jabber, Teams, Slack.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to integrate collaboration platforms to provide Digital Twin users with a conversational user interface.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

API Services.

What it Does

Ability

The ability for the digital twin to publish APIs to external, partner, and internal developers to access data and services.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to simplify Digital Twin development by allowing Digital to integrate to products and services without knowing how they are implemented.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Search.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to efficiently query, locate, and retrieve relevant information or data from a larger dataset or collection.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to efficiently query, locate, and retrieve relevant information or data from a larger dataset or collection.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Command and Control.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to execute upon work instructions without human interaction. Control would be limited to IoT devices and non-plant controls.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to support future smart IoT devices with centralized management.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Orchestration.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to coordinate the automated configuration, management, and coordination of systems, applications, digital twins and services.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose it to easily manage complex tasks and workflows between different systems, applications, digital twins, or systems of digital twins.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Alerts and Notification.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to display and manage alerts, messages, message queues, triggers, and notifications.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to trigger actions which may require intervention to the ongoing processes.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Reporting.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to generate configurable and customizable reports to get insights into the data.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to get insights into the data which can be useful for various stakeholders in the system as well as for regulatory compliance.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Data Analysis and Analytics.

What it Does

Ability

The study and presentation of data to create information and knowledge. The ability to analyze data through charts, tables, dashboards, fetch data between dates, and filter data based on various criteria. The analysis of data, typically large sets of business data, using mathematics, statistics, and computer software with an objective to draw conclusions.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to understand past trends from historical data.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Prediction.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to estimate that a specified event will happen in the future or will be a consequence of other events.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to use historical data, engineering, and analytical models to predict future events before they occur.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Artificial Intelligence.

What it Does

Ability

The ability for a system to perform actions and take decisions like humans. AI would include machine learning, natural language processing, knowledge modelling and representation, reasoning, inferencing, Generative AI, LLMs and Edge AI etc.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to enable a digital twin or a digital twin system to take actions and decisions similar to humans.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Federated Learning.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to train an algorithm across multiple decentralized digital twin edge devices or servers holding local data samples, without exchanging their data samples.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to enable multiple actors to build a common, robust machine learning model without sharing data, thus addressing critical issues such as data privacy, data security, data access rights and access to heterogeneous data.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Simulation.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to create approximate imitation of a process or a system using past historical information, physical models, video, audio, and animation, what-if-scenarios.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to imitate the behavior of a physical system in the digital twin before applying to the physical world. Training operations and maintenance teams on simulated digital twins is another purpose of simulation.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Mathematical Analytics (Engineering Calculations).

What it Does

Ability

The ability to perform mathematical and statical calculations to enable physics-based and other mathematical models.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to enable the use of physics models and mathematics calculations in Digital twin analytics.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Prescriptive Recommendations.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to create prescriptive recommendations based on business rules and AI logic to suggest the best next actions to take when a pre-determined event happens.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to enable Digital Twins to provide guidance based on a combination of analytics, business rules and workflow to create actions and deliver business outcomes.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Business Rules.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to create, manage and use business rules that influence the digital twin behavior throughout its lifecycle.

What it Means

Purpose

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Distributed Ledger and Smart Contracts.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to use distributed ledgers for digital twin applications that require immutable data for digital twin instances, transactions and automation (smart contracts).

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to enable Digital twins to interact in an automated, trustworthy, and responsible manner with systems that support smart contracts and provide a full, immutable transaction record.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Composition.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to use a modular digital twin application development approach to rapidly compose and recompose digital twin services that deliver use case specific outcomes.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to compose or recompose Digital twins from a set of packaged, reusable business capabilities (PBCs) to reduce time to value, duplication and support citizen development of Digital twins.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Basic Visualization.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to graphically or parametrically (that is, through parameters and values) visualize data through simple charts, graphs, simple dashboards, tables, hierarchical and basic 3D views of the as sets.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to help people understand the significance of data by placing it in a visual context.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Advanced Visualization.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to graphically or parametrically (that is, through parameters and values), visualize data through complex charts and graphs, dashboards fetching raw and process data from multiple systems, complex 3D models and, animations, visualizations with overlayed data from different systems.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to help people understand the significance of data by placing it in a visual context.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Real-time Monitoring.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to present and interact with continuously updated information streaming at zero or low latency.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to help make decisions which are of consequence to real-time.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Entity Relationship Visualization.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to present Digital Twin entities and their hierarchical or graph-based relationships in an interactive way.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to help business users navigate and interact with complex entity (asset) hierarchies in a user friendly manner.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Extended Reality (XR).

What it Does

Ability

The ability to provide an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information such as visual, auditory, haptic etc. environment.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to realize an improved, immersive, and interactive experience for the user to around simulating the physical world in a virtual environment.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Dashboards.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to provide a graphical user interface which provides at-a-glance views of key performance indicators relevant to a particular objective or business process.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to enable various personas in operations, technology, and business to visually understand the current or past state of a system.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Continuous Intelligence.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to analyze data in flight (signals) to derive insights and actions in a business user focused visual interface.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to have various personas in operations, technology, and business to make informed real-time decisions.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Business Intelligence.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to analyze stored data (records) to derive insights and actions in a business user focused visual interface.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to have various personas in operations, technology, and business to make informed real-time decisions.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Business Process Management & Workflow.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to execute a sequence of actions as a process flow to achieve specific business outcomes.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to have effective, repeatable actions that deliver the business outcomes of the Digital Twin.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Gaming Engine Visualization.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to create immersive virtual worlds and interactive experiences with gaming engine technology.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose it to enable Digital Twins in a digital metaverse where users interact with the Digital Twin in a highly interactive manner.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

3D rendering.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to render 3D visualizations from point cloud data sets generated by LiDAR and other scanning technologies.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to interact with large point cloud and 3D datasets in a user friendly manner.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Gamification.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to enable typical elements of game playing in Digital Twin interaction.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to facilitate the use of gamification elements such as points scoring, badges, competition etc. in the user experience and interactive engagement of a Digital Twin.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Device Management.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to provision and authenticate, configure, maintain, monitor and diagnose connected IoT devices operating as part of Digital Twin environment.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose of (IoT) device management is to provide and support the whole spectrum of functional capabilities of the devices and sensors.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

System Monitoring and Alerting.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to observe Digital Twin systems, applications, and services by collecting, analyzing, and acting on their health data in order to maximize their availability and performance.

What it Means

Purpose

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Logging.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to record events, transactions, access data of users, and transactions to understand and trace the activities occurring in a Digital Twin system.

What it Means

Purpose

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Data Governance.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to manage the availability, usability, integrity and security of the data in Digital Twin systems, based on internal data standards and policies that also control data usage.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to ensure that data is consistent and trustworthy and doesn't get misused.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Device Security.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to enforce authenticated and authorized access to IoT device data through identity management, role-based access, encryption, and policies.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to control access to device data by having the appropriate privileges and enforcement framework for users and programs.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Security.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to protected Digital Twins from unintended or unauthorized access, change or destruction. Security concerns equipment, systems and information, ensuring availability, integrity and confidentiality of information.

What it Means

Purpose

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Privacy.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to enable the rights of individuals that interact with Digital Twins to control or influence what information related to them may be collected and stored and by whom and to whom that information may be disclosed.

What it Means

Purpose

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Safety.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to operate digital twins without causing unacceptable risk of physical injury or damage to the health of people, either directly, or indirectly as a result of damage to property or to the environment.

What it Means

Purpose

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Reliability.

What it Does

Ability

The ability of a Digital Twin system or component to perform its required functions under stated conditions for a specified period of time. This includes expected levels of performance, QoS, functional availability and accuracy.

What it Means

Purpose

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Resilience.

What it Does

Ability

The ability of a Digital Twin system or component to maintain an acceptable level of service in the face of disruption. This includes the ability to recover lost capacity in a timely manner (using a more or less automated procedure), or to reassign workloads and functions.

What it Means

Purpose

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Responsibility.

What it Does

Ability

The ability to ensure digital twins are designed and utilized in a manner that upholds ethical standards, promotes transparency and accountability in decision-making, actively prevents biases, and considers long-term societal and environmental impacts, without compromising the trust and welfare of stakeholders.

What it Means

Purpose

The purpose is to guarantee that the systems operate within a framework of ethical guidelines, ensuring that they not only perform their intended functions but also do so in a way that aligns with societal values and norms.

Examples/Explanation

What it Is

Digital Twin Capability

Data Encryption

What it Does

Ability

The ability to convert Digital Twin data from a readable format into an encoded format that can be used to transfer data securely. It also includes the ability to decrypt the data in order to read or process the data once it reaches its destination.

What it Means

Purpose

Examples/Explanation