Digital twin of the enterprise. Digital twin

June 23, 2017 Creation of a three-dimensional Digital Twin is included in the list of standard functionality of Winnum®, a platform for the industrial Internet of things. With Winnum®, creating 3D Digital Twins is now as easy as connecting sensors.

“Digital twin” is a computer representation of a specific physical product, group of products, mechanical or technological process, which completely repeats everything that its physical prototype does, starting from movements and kinematics, and ending with a representation of its physical environment and current operating conditions, including movement liquids and gases. A digital twin acts as an intermediary between a physical product and important information about it, such as operation or maintenance data. Now, with the help of Winnum, full-fledged feedback based on collecting data from the real world and transferring this data to the digital world.

What is 3D Digital twin?

A three-dimensional Digital Twin is a computer-generated 3D representation of a specific physical product, group of products, mechanical or technological process, which includes not only three-dimensional geometry, technical specifications and current operating parameters, but also other important information- environment and operating conditions, technical condition and operating time, interaction with other objects, predictive analytics data, including forecasting failures and failures. A digital twin can be both simplified and very detailed and reflect a wide range of different characteristics both the product itself and the technological and production processes.

The presence of a three-dimensional Digital Twin helps to organize the connection of the product with the objects connected to it, software responsible for product management, monitoring the operating condition and operating process, etc. A 3D Digital Twin is especially valuable when it most accurately reflects the actual state and performance characteristics of its physical counterpart. No matter how accurate, detailed and well-developed the actions are at the stages of design, modeling and pre-production, in real life, as a rule, the processes proceed a little differently and it is the Digital Twin that can act as a bridge to the necessary information about the actual operation of products. This information can be used in different ways, for example, to assess bottlenecks, opportunities for improvement and change, confirm the feasibility of changes, etc. In addition, since the Digital Twin is a three-dimensional object, working with it is much clearer for a person than working with any tables or graphs. A 3D Digital Twin allows you to look inside a real physical object while it is running, without having to stop the equipment or open panels that block access to parts that require inspection.

Winnum's unique functionality allows our customers to create and manage 3D digital twins by combining information from physical objects and real-world processes with information generated by various computer-aided design (CAD) systems. Winnum supports loading 3D CAD models in neutral formats such as STL, VRML and OBJ, with direct loading available for Blender and Collada. The presence of ready-made 3D libraries of robots, equipment, sensors and other geometric objects further speeds up and simplifies the process of creating Digital Twins, even for those companies that cannot boast of having fully digitized products in 3D form.

3D scenes and smart Digital Twins (Smart Digital Twin)

Each Digital Twin corresponds to one specific instance of the product. That is, if a company uses 100 pieces of equipment or produces hundreds of thousands of products, then for each piece of equipment/product there is its own Digital Twin. Winnum's unique capabilities for working with big data ( Big Data) help you work with so many digital twins to solve everyday problems and ensure high system performance regardless of their number.

3D scenes are used to combine Digital Twins and gain insight into their overall performance and performance, common variances based on their operating environment, etc. Winnum's 3D scenes are not just 3D environments, as is common in CAD systems. 3D scenes in Winnum are the ability to create a full-fledged 3D world with a wide range of tools for working with light sources (including Raytracing, specular views, fog, intensity, transparency), textures (including dynamic textures with video stream), custom cameras and mechanisms for interacting with 3D objects (selecting an object, clicking on an object, transferring a control action).

All actions of a 3D scene and all tools for working with a 3D Digital Twin are available exclusively in the Web browser.

About the companySignum

Signum (SIGNUM) is a global provider of solutions for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The company's solutions help transform the processes of creating, operating and maintaining products using Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies. The next-generation Winnum™ platform provides companies with the tools they need to collect, analyze and generate additional value from large volumes of data generated by networked controllers, sensors, products and systems.

Perhaps anyone who watched films about the Terminator or “The Matrix” wondered when artificial intelligence will become part of our everyday life, and whether humans and robots can coexist in peace and harmony. This future is much closer than you think. Today we will tell you about a technology called “digital twins,” which is already widely used in industry and, perhaps, will soon become part of our everyday life.

Who are digital twins?

It is a mistake to believe that the term “digital twins” refers to robots and artificial intelligence in the guise of some kind of humanoid creature. The term itself is currently applied mostly to industrial production. The concept of “digital twins” first appeared in 2003. The term came into use after the publication of an article by a professor and assistant director of the Control Center life cycle and Florida Tech innovation by Michael Greaves, “Digital Twins: Manufacturing Excellence from a Virtual Prototype Factory.” The concept itself was invented by a NASA engineer who was a colleague of the professor.

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At its core, digital twins are a concept that combines artificial intelligence, computer-assisted learning, and data-driven software to create living digital models. These “digital twins” are constantly updated as the physical prototypes change.

Where do digital twins get their data for self-updating?

The digital copy, as befits artificial intelligence, constantly learns and improves itself. To this end, a digital twin uses knowledge from humans, other similar machines, and the larger systems and environment of which it is a part.

Michael Greaves proposed his three requirements that “digital twins” must meet. The first is compliance with the appearance of the original object. You need to understand that similar appearance– this is not only the whole picture, but also the correspondence of individual parts to the real “twin”. The second requirement is related to the behavior of the double during testing. The last and most difficult thing is the information that is received from artificial intelligence about the advantages and disadvantages of a real product.

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As Michael Greaves points out, when digital copies came into use, even the criterion of superficial similarity was considered difficult to achieve. Today, as soon as a digital twin is identical in the first parameters, it can already be used to solve practical problems.

Why do we need digital twins?

Digital copies are created to optimize the performance of physical prototypes, entire systems and production processes.

According to Colin J. Parris, Ph.D., vice president of software research at GE Global Research Center, digital twins are a hybrid model (both physical and digital) that are created specifically for specific business purposes, e.g. predict failures, reduce maintenance costs, prevent unplanned outages.

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Colin J. Parris states that when we talk about “digital twins”, this system works in three stages: seeing, thinking and doing. The “seeing” stage is about obtaining data about the situation. There are two types of information: operational data (eg boiling point) and environmental data. The next step, which Colin J. Parris conventionally called “thinking,” is due to the fact that at this stage the “digital twin” can provide options for various requests on how best to act in a given situation or which options are preferable for business purposes. Artificial intelligence uses for analysis, for example, historical information, revenue and expense forecasts and provides several options that are based on risks and the confidence that these proposals can reduce them. The last step - “doing” - is directly related to the implementation of what needs to be done.

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With the help of “digital twins”, for example, can be seen from within the problem of a physical object.

In production, we no longer need to see, for example, the entire turbine in front of us in order to detect a hole. Digital twin technology will allow you to see the problem in real time using computer visualization.

According to Zvi Feuer, executive vice president of software development at Siemens, the digital twin is a PLM solution on the path to Industry 4.0.

What types of “digital twins” already exist?

As we said earlier, “digital twins” are actively used in industry: part twins (which are built for a specific production part), product twins (related to the release of a product, their main goal is to reduce the cost of maintenance), process twins ( their purpose may be, for example, to increase the service life), system twins (optimization of the entire system as a whole).

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According to the high-tech research and consulting agency Gartner, hundreds of millions of “digital twins” will soon replace human labor. Some companies already use this. It is not necessary to have an employee on staff who would diagnose problems in production. In real time, with the help of “digital twins”, you can receive all the necessary data and be ready to repair equipment in advance.

What about the “digital twin” of the person himself?

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For those who want to have a Terminator friend who thinks like you, helps in everything, is a brother and a friend, we have good news. According to futurist and technologist John Smith, such a future is already near. He believes that in the near future there will be so-called software agents that will predict in advance the wishes and behavior of their real copy and will perform some actions for their human counterpart.

The “Digital Twin” will be able to make purchases, make business decisions, engage in social activities - in general, will be able to do everything that we sometimes do not have enough time for.

We will also be able to transfer all routine work. In addition, according to John Smith, our digital clones will know our interests, preferences, political views and, if necessary, will be able to defend them, since they will have a more complete historical context and see the modern picture of the world as a whole. And even a feeling of compassion. For example, a “digital twin” will show affection to us because it will be able to guess our emotional state.

This all sounds like a utopian movie script. I feel something is wrong. What are the disadvantages of “digital twins”?

The disadvantages of digital twins are obvious. First of all, the question of our safety arises. Digital clones will use all possible resources to supplement information about us. These are algorithms that collect data from social network accounts, and our personal correspondence, and any documents and files that, in one way or another, concern us. Of course, this cannot but be alarming: as we have already found out, “digital twins” are capable of constantly updating and improving. Therefore, one of the primary tasks should be the creation of a legal framework for determining the “limits of permissibility” of artificial intelligence.

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However, do not panic about this. Take John Smith as an example: he remains optimistic and believes that “digital twins” will not replace humanity. They will simply become different versions of humans who can peacefully coexist with us.

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More recently, German Gref, president of Sberbank, said that in 5 years artificial intelligence will replace many people: 80% of decisions will be made by machines, and this will lead to tens of thousands of people losing their jobs.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence expert Pedro Domingos goes even further: he suggests that people will acquire a computer psychological model of their personality. What will it be like?

Sex, lies and machine learning

The digital future begins with an awareness of the fact that when you interact with a computer - be it your own smartphone or a server thousands of kilometers away - you do so on two levels every time. The first is the desire to immediately get what you need: an answer to a question, a desired product, a new credit card. At the second level, strategic and most important, you tell the computer about yourself.

The more you teach him, the better he will serve you or manipulate you.

What model of your personality do you want to present to a computer? What data can be given to him so that he can build this model? These are questions to keep in mind whenever you interact with a machine learning algorithm, just as you would when interacting with people.

Digital mirror

Think about all your data that is stored in all the computers in the world. This emails, MS Office documents, texts, tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, internet search history, clicks, downloads and orders, credit history, taxes, phone and medical records, driving information recorded in your car's on-board computer, travel map , registered by your mobile phone, every photograph you've ever taken, briefly appearing in security camera footage.

If a would-be biographer had access to only this data dump and nothing else, what picture would he or she emerge? Probably pretty accurate.

Imagine that you took all your data and gave it to the real Supreme Algorithm of the future, which already has knowledge about human life that we can teach it. It will create your model and you can carry it on a flash drive in your pocket. Of course, this will be an excellent tool for self-analysis - like looking at yourself in the mirror. But the mirror would be digital and would show not only your appearance, but also everything that can be learned by watching you. The mirror could come to life and talk.

The benefits of a digital twin

What would you like to do, what tasks to entrust to your digital soulmate? Probably the first thing you would want from your model is to instruct her to negotiate with the world on your behalf: release her into cyberspace so that she looks for all sorts of things for you.

Of all the books in the world, she'll recommend the top ten you'll want to read first, and the advice will be so deep that Amazon never dreamed of it. The same thing will happen with movies, music, games, clothes, electronics, whatever. Of course, your refrigerator will always be full. The model will filter your electronic and voicemail, news on Facebook and updates on Twitter, and when appropriate, respond for you.

It takes care of all the annoying little things of modern life, like checking your credit card accounts, appealing bad transactions, planning your schedule, renewing your subscriptions, and filing your taxes. She will select a medicine for you, check with your doctor and order it from the online store.

The model will tell you who you like. And after you get to know and like each other, your model will team up with your lady's model and choose restaurants that you both might like. And this is where it gets really interesting.

Model Society

In the very fast-approaching future, you will not be the only person with a “digital soulmate” who carries out your orders around the clock. Everyone will have a similar personality model, and the models will communicate with each other all the time.

If you are looking for a job and company X is looking for employees, then their model will interview yours. Their “conversation” will in many ways resemble a real, “live” one - your model will be well instructed, for example, it will not give out negative information about you - but the whole process will only take a split second.

In the world of the Supreme Algorithm, “my people will contact your people” will become “my program will contact your program.” Each person will have a retinue of bots, designed to make his path around the world easier and more enjoyable. Deals, negotiations, meetings - all this will be organized before you have time to lift a finger.

Your digital soulmate will be like power steering: life will go where you want it to go, but with less effort on your part.

This does not mean that you will find yourself in a “filter bubble” and begin to see only what you are guaranteed to like, without any surprises. The digital personality will be much smarter, she will have instructions to leave room for chance, let you come into contact with new experiences, look for happy accidents.

As models improve, the interaction will become more and more similar to what would happen in the real world, but it will happen in silico and a million times faster. The cyberspace of tomorrow will turn into a very vast parallel world, which will begin to select all the most promising things to try in reality. It will be like a new, global subconscious, the collective “Id” of humanity, or “It”.

Today's world is remarkable in that theories of mind have begun to appear in computers. While these theories are still primitive, they are evolving rapidly, and we will have to work with them as much as with other people to get what we want.

Based on materials from the book “The Supreme Algorithm”

In the “New Word” section, Apparat talks about recently emerging terms associated with the new society. This issue features a digital twin. A computer that knows everything about you and can imitate your behavior.

Digital twin

The technological dream of futurist and founder of the Acceleration Studies Foundation John Smart that soon special computer programs will be able to imitate the behavior of specific people. Using various technologies for collecting and analyzing your data, the computer will be able to answer your letters for you and even communicate with your relatives while you are busy. According to Smart, digital twins should appear within the next five years.

It is assumed that to create a digital twin, special software will analyze your correspondence on social networks and email, browser history and purchases in online stores, information from wearable devices, smartphones or smart watch, and any other available information. Based on this data, with the help of special algorithms it will be possible to program your behavior: how would you respond to a partner in a business letter, what would you say to your children in their message on Facebook. Computers already know a lot about our preferences, for example, advertising companies analyze our search queries and emails, create a profile for each person and try to show him only those advertisements that will be truly interesting to him.

Software that imitates human behavior is also beginning to penetrate our lives: digital assistants - Siri from Apple, Cortana from Microsoft and Watson from IBM - communicate with the user, answer his questions, and can carry on a conversation even on abstract topics. The first chatbots have been developed that successfully pass the Turing test - that is, they mislead people who communicate with them into believing that they are not artificial intelligence, but real human intelligence.

Scientists are also considering more fantastic options for creating a digital twin: complete digitization of the brain, the so-called uploading of consciousness. But work in this direction is now only in its infancy: for example, as part of the Blue Brain project, by 2023 a digital version of the neocortex, the main part of the human cerebral cortex, should be completely simulated.

How to use a digital twin

Talk to a person after his death

One of the most ambitious plans is to create a double that can replace a person after his death. “When you and I die, our children will not come to our graves. They'll go and run our digital twins and talk to them,” says John Smart. “This scenario may sound a little far-fetched,” he adds. “But people are already creating a wailing wall on the pages of deceased relatives in social networks and continue to send them private messages.” Science fiction writers and directors love such perspectives. For example, one of the plots in the series “Black Mirror” talks about how a young woman replaced her husband who died in a car accident with a digital copy. Later, she “downloaded” her husband’s consciousness into an android robot—that is, she practically revived him.

Personal assistant

This option is much simpler to implement and does not require such a high level of cognitive abilities from the double. To some extent this is already being implemented, for example digital Google Assistant Now analyzes your email and search queries, giving you tips that make your life easier. However, the digital twin will be able not only to suggest something to you, but also to take on some of your tasks, albeit quite simple ones: make an appointment with the doctor, schedule a business meeting, and in the store point out the products that are most suitable for your diet in terms of content useful substances.

Disadvantages of the project

One of the main drawbacks of this concept, which even its ideologist John Smart admits, is a complete violation of privacy. The program will read all your correspondence, analyze purchases and generally penetrate into what is called your personal life in every possible way. Large corporations that collect less data are already facing protests.

John Smart

ideologist of creating digital twins

You know, I would like to keep my health and financial information in a small safe so that no one can access it. But such thinking is atavism. You can't get much unless you sacrifice your privacy. I am confident that as long as people feel in control of technology, data privacy will be secondary.

Image: Edward Blake Edwards

In Russia today it is difficult to talk about the 4th industrial revolution, but we believe that it is necessary to talk. Among the technological drivers at industrial enterprises in the new generation, industrial Internet of things platforms will appear that implement the concept of a digital twin.

Forrester analysts define a digital twin as the creation of a real physical object in an abstract digital form that acts as an intermediary for any communication with a real device.

According to General Electric, the idea of ​​a digital twin is to go further than just working with digital models. The company says maintenance will also occur in sync with the digital model of the real object through sensor systems and communications.

Analyst agency Gartner predicts that by 2021, half of large industrial companies will use digital twins and as a result, these organizations will receive a 10% increase in operational efficiency.

“Digital twins are driving the business impact of IoT by offering a powerful way to monitor and manage assets and processes,” says Alfonso Velosa, research vice president at Gartner. This especially excites our team, since in the SAYMON project we are very closely involved in automated monitoring and management, including information systems and the Internet of Things. Of course, the competition in the market for platforms for IoT management is quite high - literally every major digital corporation today claims to have platforms, but not everyone has managed to make their own developments or acquire a company with a ready-made solution. Often a statement of availability is a tribute to decency - there is a technological trend, there is a statement from a corporation.

Today we do not yet work with digital models and drawings - we are open to partners with experience in this field. At the moment, we have experience of cooperation with a company that creates photo-realistic copies of industrial facilities and as a result, a separate project VIOTR was born, combining the power of digitized space with the ability to obtain data from real sensors and video cameras, the ability to control switches, relays and dampers in the real world. The VIOTR project today has a focus on educational technologies of the future, but in essence is part of the concept of a digital twin.

This is exactly what our colleagues from Computer Weekly put it - the new approach involves managing communications between edge devices and internal systems and mirroring changes in the virtual model of the device - in other words, a digital twin appears.

Examples show that even such simple operations as controlling door locks can achieve significant operating savings. Dormakaba, which makes smart door locks, has been using ServiceMax's field management software since 2012, helping it monitor its installations. Detailed data on the performance of each door helps Dormakaba and its partners manage buildings more efficiently. A recent Vanson Bourne study for ServiceMax found that industrial companies lose $260,000 per hour due to unplanned downtime. Predicting failure using digital twins can help overcome this problem. The digital twin can provide engineers at Dormakaba with the most up-to-date record of every activity or event recorded by the door sensors, records the installation of components and firmware updates, and can be used by the Dormakaba service team to determine the lifespan of a product along with detailed description security log which is connected to the door. It is also important to ensure close communication with parts and component suppliers and product life cycle management, ensuring an extremely clear level of control and service. By using digital lock forecasting, Dormakaba expects to reduce the number of customer calls and improve the quality of service. Together with Swisscom, a cloud platform for lock management was created. Partner training is an important element of innovation and business transformation, Dormakaba recognizes.

In a Gartner report Digital Twins Will Impact Economic and Business Models, the analytics firm draws an analogy between the amount of data collection done by companies like Google, Amazon and Netflix and how much data digital twins in industrial firms will create to continuously monitor the performance of equipment connected to control systems.

Analysts warn that this will require even more control of components and software updates, and will require car manufacturers to become software providers. “Asset operators will need to add asset management skills software into their operations divisions as they add smarter assets, and add software and data ownership to support contracts,” analysts warn.

Image from https://www.ge.com/